- See more at: http://tutorialgeek.blogspot.ca/2010/11/how-to-change-your-blogger-domain-url.html#sthash.JOLPbG90.dpuf my beauty full adventure - do not use: January 2013

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Swatched: NYX - The Crimson Amulet Collection

I first saw this NYX collection on GoldieStarling's YouTube Channel when she was part of the NYX Face Awards. I fell in love with this palette and thought that the colours just looked gorgeous. A few months later after I had cancelled Glossybox for the first time, I saw that us Canadian girls were getting this makeup collection as part of the September Box. I quickly re-signed up because I thought $15 for this palette plus 4 other samples was a great deal. I was so excited to receive this palette, but since September it has sat with my other palettes unswatched and unused.

I finally broke this palette out last week and have been using it everyday since. Now I haven't used the glosses so I can't give a review on those, but the powder products and eyeshadow base I love love love.

The mini HD High Definition Eyeshadow Base reminds me of the Urban Decay Primer Potion in look, feel, and how it makes my eyeshadows last. I will definitely be buying a full size of this primer once I use up what I have.

The highlighter is beautiful. It is perfect for my skin tone and gives my skin a wonderful glow. I use it on my cheekbones, down my nose, and on my cupids bow and it just brings a very nautral looking light to my skin.

The blushes in this palette are highly pigmented. I like using the shimmer ones on light makeup days because it eliminates me having to put on a highlighter. I haven't used the red shade yet, cause in all honesty, it scares the crap out of me. It is so pigmented and bold and I just don't think that it is a colour I can pull off. I like that they included both matte and shimmer blushes in this palette.










There are 24 eyeshadows included in this palette that range from matte neutral shades to shimmery bronze, dark green, navy blue, and yellow gold. You could create endless looks with the colours you are given. I find that the shimmer shades are very pigmented and have great colour payoff. Some of the neutral shades I find are a bit chalky and don't show up that good when swatched or on the eye. One of the shades you can barely see when I swatched it because it is pretty much my skin tone.

Compared to the NYX trio palettes and individual eyeshadows I feel like these are lacking a bit in quality. And I am sure there individual blushes are of better quality, but for what I paid for this palette I am getting great value for my money.

All swatches were done over Hard Candy Eyeshadow Primer. The eyeshadows were swatched from left to right, top to bottom, row by row. Please be warned, this post is very picture heavy!


1) Dark grey/brown almost black
2) Very light pink shimmer. Reminds me of MAC Kitchmas.
3) Eggplant purple with purple and gold glitter.
4) Orange based bronze shimmer.
5) Lilac shimmer
6) Taupe shimmer
7) Gold peach shimmer. Swatch looks more gold but in the pan there is a noticeable hint of peach.
8) Navy blue/black with blue glitter.
9) Navy Blue
10) Forest green with gold shimmer
11) Medium brown with gold shimmer
12) Dark purple with brown undertones

13) Matte cream. Pretty much my skin tone.
14) Matte taupe
15) Matte light brown
16) White shimmer
17) Champagne
18) Matte dark brown
19) Pale pink with shimmer. Looks closer to white.
20) Matte dark grey
21) Pink shimmer
22) Shimmery taupe
23) Brown toned bronze shimmer
24) Yellow gold

1) Matte red. Looks kinda orange in this swatch.
2) Matte light pink.
3) Shimmery pink
4) Shimmery peach
5) Slightly darker peach shimmer.
 
 
 
Have you tried this palette before? If so what do you like or not like about it? What are some other NYX products you think I should check out?
 
 
 

Thursday, January 17, 2013

NOTD: Powder Blue Mosaic

Today's manicure has got to my most favourite manicure of the past year. I picked up Revlon's Blue Mosaic just before Christmas, and have been trying to figure out a good way to wear it ever since. The multi-sized glitter has a moderate density to it, which would probably take 3 pretty thick coats to get full opacity on the nail.

I was himming and hawing about doing a full glitter manicure or an accent glitter nail manicure, when the idea of a glitter gradient popped into my mind. I started with two coats of Joe Fresh Powder Blue, which is what the name says, a light powder blue colour. I find that Joe isn't that creative with the naming of their polishes lol. Powder Blue has a real watery consistency so two coats took no time to dry and allowed me to add lots of glitter without it taking hours to dry.


To get the glitter gradient I started with a thin layer of glitter over the whole nail. After that was dry I repeated that but started halfway down the nail to the tip. Once that was dry I added a third thicker layer of glitter right to the tip of the nail (as if I was doing a French Manicure). I did a thicker layer for the last one because I wanted the glitter to be almost opaque at the tips. I then used a coat of Seche Vite to lock everything in, and voila! a beautiful blue glitter gradient manicure.

Even with 7 coats of nail polish on each nail it dried fairly quickly, and lasted about a week before it started chipping at the tips. This is definitely a manicure I will be doing again soon.


How do you feel about glitter gradients??
 
 

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Swatched: The Color Workshop Lip Crayons & Gloss

Jumbo Lip Pencils have become the next big thing in the beauty world. Revlon, Clinique, Nars, Covergirl, etc...they all have their versions. I picked up this Jumbo Lip Pencil set from The Color Workshop on Boxing Day at Walmart for only $4.50! It comes with 5 pencils and 2 lip glosses in an assortment pinks and reds and one purple.

I really didn't have very high hopes about the quality of these pencils because they are not from a high quality brand. However, the colour payoff is impressive and they stay on the lips for such a long time. The pencils are sorta glossy/sorta matte and the glosses are smooth and non-sticky. There are no names on these products, so I photographed them in the same order as the swatches.

I am really tempted now to run out and buy some other brands jumbo lip crayons, but that will have to wait until my no-buy is done. I would love to know which brands and colours of lip crayons are your favourite. Leave them in a comment below so I can add them to my Buy Later List.

UPDATE - Since writing this post I have seen these sets on Sale at multiple Shoppers Drug Marts for $4.99.

These are swatches of the 2 glosses that came with the kit.




Sunday, January 13, 2013

NOTD: Revlon Cloud

I have to say Revlon is quickly becoming my favourite nail polish brand. I haven't found a colour I don't like, and the formula is pretty much perfect for me. I never need more than 2 coats for a perfectly opaque manicure and this polish lasts almost a week without chipping. This polish lasts so long in fact that I am taking it off because my nails have grown not because of chipping.

I bought Revlon's Cloud at Dollarama because a) it was only $2 and b) it is a shade I don't have anything like in my collection. I have a grey polish and purple polishes and blue polishes but, nothing that is all three in one. In some lights this polish looks like a perfect light grey colour, and in others it looks slightly grey-purple or grey-blue. It is a really interesting colour and one that I believe would be perfect for all year round.

It goes on opaque after two coats and I have no streaking or bubbling. I also received many compliments on this colour when I had it on. I want to thank Aleksandra for influencing me to finally wear this polish after she showcased it on her blog here.



Do you like Revlon's polishes? What is your favourite colour?



Friday, January 11, 2013

#RevlonSelects Eyeshadow & Lipstick Review


Here is the second part of my Revlon Selects Review. I was finally able to play around with the Eyeshadow Palette and Suede Lipstick over the holidays. I received these products from Revlon Canada in exchange for a review. You can find my review of the nail products here.

First I'll talk about the Revlon Photoready Primer + Shadow Palette in 501 Metropolitan. The palette is set up like an eye, showing you which colour to use on the lid, in the crease, and on the brow bone. Below the eye you get a rectangle of "primer" and a gold glittery topcoat.

Now I put primer in quotations because this doesn't have the consistency of a normal eyeshadow primer and I found that it doesn't really work like one either. I used this as my only primer one day and the colours were fading by lunch time. I now just use this light pink shimmery primer as an all over wash of colour on days when I am wearing minimal makeup. I find that it really brings a nice light to the eyes.

The gold glitter topcoat is really nice and when used wet looks gorgeous on the lid. However, unless you are using this shadow wet then be prepared for tons of fallout. My face looked like a disco ball all day because they glitter continued to fall off my eye throughout the whole day.

The other three eyeshadows are really nice but, I don't like the order that Revlon put them in. When used in the intended order you get a smokey eye look every time. The sliver crease shade just doesn't work for me as a crease shade and the brow bone highlight is too dark of a pink to be a proper highlight shade. Even though the order of the shades don't work for me the pigmentation and colour payoff of the shadows are great and I will continue to use them.

I really like the packaging of this palette. I like that there is a window so you can see the eyeshadows that are inside but, I don't like the shape of the shadows. The narrow size of the crease and brow bone pans make it hard to get the brush in there to get the shadow out. I would have liked to see a simple shape to the pans, like in the Almay 3 shadow palettes.

Overall this is very good palette and I give it 4 out of 5 stars.


The next makeup product we received in our sample box was the Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Suede Lipstick in 035 Backstage. I was so excited to get this colour as it looks like the perfect wine/berry toned red. To me this is such a perfect Fall/Winter colour.

Packaging wise I really like this lipstick. It has a clear lid so you can see what the colour is and the plastic case colouring is a perfect match to the lipstick. I also like how the lipstick twists down below the rim of the packaging so that there is no chance of you nicking the product when taking the lid off or putting it back on.

The formula of this lipstick is different from the other ones in my collection. It goes on really glossy and patchy. You have to put many coats to get an even application that fully covers yours lips. And because it is so glossy I always need to put this on in a mirror and clean up the edges of my lips cause it just slips and slides everywhere.

It stays glossy for a few minutes and then once it starts drying it becomes really sticky, something I dislike. Once it is dry on your lips it feels tight and dry and it can also make your lips look really dry as well. I would not recommend using this lipstick on days when your lips are already dry and/or cracked cause it will only emphasize that.

Once this lipstick is dry I find that it stays on for a very long time. Eventually, it starts to flake off and at that point I try and rub it all off because it does not look pretty when half of your dark, noticeable lipstick has worn off. This lipstick does leave a light noticeable stain to your lips and when it gets to this point I like to put a lip balm or gloss over top.

I definitely prefer this lipstick when it looks glossy as apposed to when it has dried to its suede finish. I probably wouldn't purchase anymore of these lipsticks, as I do not like the finish. I would give this 2.5 stars out of 5.

1 layer
2 layers
3 layers
Natural light
Artificial light
 
 
If you received a Revlon Selects package what did you like/dislike about these two products? Would you be willing to purchase more with your own money?
 
 
 

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Swatched: Quo All About Eyes Palette

As I have been going through my collection over the last couple of weeks, and getting reacquainted with everything that I own, I thought it was about time that I started swatching and reviewing what I have.

The first palette I have to show is the Quo All About Eyes Palette. I picked this up from Shoppers Drug Mart on Boxing Day for 50% off. It's original price was $22, so I got it for $11. I have been wanting this palette for awhile now, ever since I saw it when I bought the Quo Back to Basics Palette. The colours are so me and the purples just look gorgeous in the pan.

Since swatching this palette I am a little disappointed with the colour payoff of some of the purples and I find that some of the shades are a little chalky. The chalkiness and fallout are minimal though and colour payoff is very good on most of the shadows. I may not like Quo's brushes, but all of the eyeshadows I have used so far have been of really good quality.


The eyeshadows are about the size of a loonie, so they will last a very long time. The packaging of this palette is so pretty and is definitely the most glamorous looking palette that I own. The lid is covered in gold sequins and looks very chic. Inside the palette there is a large mirror on one side which makes it perfect for travel and doing your makeup on the go. It also came with double sided sponge applicators, but I threw those out after using them to make the swatches.

Some of the colours were hard to photograph because they are so light, so hopefully you can see them. If you have a chance to pick up this palette some Shoppers may still have stock. I believe that they are still 50% off. This palette is definitely a winner!

 Swatches are done over Hard Candy's Eyeshadow Primer. There are no names for the colours, so I broke them up into groups of four and two.



 
Have you tried this palette before? What are some of your favourite Quo products?