Cool-Toned EoTD w/ Rose Gold

The more I do this, the more I realize that I am perfectly capable of creating nicely executed looks on the spot. This may sound a bit braggadocious, but I enjoyed today's look a lot more than yesterday's. Let me show you the pics of my eyes after a full day of work:

blurred to show shine

a teensy bit of creasing with the cream color shade- without flash it was not noticeable

So overall this was a clean little look. I used a couple of products, and in the same order:

1.) Wet 'n Wild Eyeshadow Primer
2.) Mac Painterly Paint Pot
3.) Carli Bybel Palette Cream Shadow (browbone and crease)
3.) Ardency Inn Rose Gold Single on lid
4.) Carli Bybel Palette light mauve matte blended into the crease
5.) Shiro Cosmetics Fleeced Line Pillow Fort in the inner corner

Face powder wise, my highlighter was a light-handed Hustle and Glow from ittse.

Today's Super Soft Glam EoTD

Today's eye look was comprised of five eyeshadows. 

1. base- cream-color shadow ⯀

2. crease- Angel Face by Coloured Raine ⯀

3. crease/lid- Lay Low by ColourPop ⯀

4. lid; 20-Something by Colourpop- Light golden shimmer

5. inner corner- Crown by Coloured Raine- white-golden shimmer w//hint of pink

Notes- this was a really simple look that I wish I had spent more time building up/adding dimension to it. It was pretty, but a little boring for my liking. Oh well. At least my freckles look kind of cool.

On my face, which I need to start remembering to take pics of, I used:
-Precious Petals- blush/highlight. This is a little dark on me as a highlighter so I placed it where I would blush. The effect was okay.
-Vanessa's Vanity Sparkler in 6pm- I layered this on top of Precious Petals, and I am not usually so emotional about highlighter but it was BRIGHT. I had to tone it down with Mac Fix +.
-Usual blush combo of MuG Puppy Love + Pixi Beach Rose

Lips: I have really been liking Stila's lip balm in Grayson. It's a tad pricey for a lip balm, but it does keep my lips moisturized while adding a tint of grey to them.

So, that's it for now. I have no idea what look I am going to do tomorrow, but whatever it is I hope it is a bit more impactful than today.

Buh-bye.

Anti-Haul: Lime Crime Venus III (updated)

The internet is awash in....I don't know actually...about Lime Crime's newest release, the Venus 3. Let me be clear, I established long ago that I don't support this brand. So, I thought because it is a rather pretty palette, why not anti-haul the beans out of it? Note- it will cost $38 @ 2 g each.

Let's go.



When I first saw this palette, I thought to myself, Coloured Raine must be maaaad. Why? Take a look at their Berry Cute palette ($36/1.5 g each)   


The same!! It's the saaaame. But the Berry Cute formula I heard was not great, except for the shimmers. Something about that purple and red.

Let's get back to Venus. If you put your finger over the red and purple, you get a very monochromatic palette. Sure, there are different finishes, but to me it appears very grey. I myself would not get much variety out of that look.

In my own stash, I have the Modern Renaissance for dark reds and pinks. But Buon Fresco is also a cooler tone that jives with the Venus 3. I also have the BH Cosmetic Zodiac Palette:

I've marked all the places where I see parallels. 

Finally, the Queen of Hearts palette:

So, for me, though I would not be buying this palette anyway, I am actually quite convinced that I really don't need it. I don't feel like the formula will be that interesting, given the shimmers on the Polly Pockets were not liked by many.

I also think this palette bears a striking resemblance to the coolness of the Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bons palette, but even a teensy bit the PB & J Palette ( a bit of a stretch, I know)

Would I get a single inspired by this palette?

Not really. I have tried my share of purple frosts from the BH Cosmetics Foils eyes palette, and have learned it is not for me. The colors that do pique my interest I am confident I already have.

Update: we have swatches! They look quite bad. I mean to the point where the promotional imagery looks far more saturated than what is going on the arms..

For fun, I have a video on my favorite purple products:

Weekend Thoughts and Declutter

Hi all,

I know I have been promising another long-form anti-haul for a while. But the thing is, the releases have become so crazy and constant that I actually don't care anymore. I'm at a really good place with my collection, though it could definitely be smaller, but overall I am not really feeling the pressure to make any purchases. For me, it has been really easy to avoid the lure of these releases.

So, anyway, I have one empty to talk about- my second bottle of the Simple micellar water. I've really liked it, but I am not going to repurchase another just yet. I've got a lot of cleansing creams I want to get through first.

I have a long overdue declutter of five items:
Almay Liquid eyeliner- absolutely no staying power.
Revlon bronzer in Desert Bronze. I will never trust Revlon with face powder again. They have a terrible track record for me.
Nyx All Over Balm- For a balm, it's ingredients are not stellar, and the coconut scent is very faint. I used about half, and have no use for it.
Seraphine Botanicals Guava Butter Lip and Cheek Tint- I've had this past its expiry, and in that time have never used it. It's gone.

Last week I felt I was making a lot of good decisions regarding my makeup. Tomorrow my challenge will be to incorporate a highlighter I barely use, maybe with a matte eye. The highlighter I have in mind is Wet 'n Wild's Mermaid one.

Thanks for reading!

April Ipsy 2018: Swatches and Review

As you can probably tell from past posts, I have a few strained relationship with Ipsy. It is well-documented by now. However, I have to admit that this was a a pretty good bag, all in all. The estimated retail value of the items in my particular bag is $50.34. Here is my breakdown:

Meech and Mia copper- $11.50

Ciate London Star Struck Eyeliner- ? smaller than regular liner, which is priced at 19. .05 oz/19 $15.20

Biorace 1 oz Pore Tightening Pearl Clay Mask 3.88 oz/ 25 = $6.44

Firma Beauty Angled Blender Brush $13.00

Skin and Co Roma Truffle Therapy Cleansing Cream 1 oz

8.4 oz/ $35 = $4.20 for 1 oz

$50.34 total. Let's go item by item.



1.) The Firma 202 brush. It is an angled shader brush, that appears to be duo-fiber. It is very soft but also very dense. I tried using it in my crease today, but I cannot use it the same as a fluffy brush. I will find other uses for it, though. It has a nice weight, and is a well-made brush.

2.) The Skin and Co Whipped Cleansing Cream. This smells very sweet. The only other cleansing cream I have was very soapy and irritated my eyes. This did not do that. It is a very rich formula, and even though it's creamy, you can also feel it exfoliate, gently. It removed most of my makeup, except for the inner corner of my eye right underneath my browbone, but I didn't apply product there for fear of getting it into my eyes. I really like this product and will happily use it again. The full size is a little too pricey for me, so I would not repurchase, though.

3.) Bioarace Mask. It is a lot of product, and it smells very herbal. The packaging states to only use it 1-2 times per week. I've used it two times, and haven't found any huge difference between it and my other masks.



4.) Meech and Mia Copper Eyeshadow. Really stunning, intense color. Next time I won't even use it with Pixie Epoxy, to tone it down a smidge. I like it a lot.










5.) Ciate Eyeliner + Star Stamp. I am never going to use the star stamp. The liner is alright. It has not replaced my all-time drugstore fave, though.





All in all, I didn't get any of those pesky filler brands. My last month will be June, if I think the previews are interesting. Overall, I think this was a really nice bag. I especially like all the skin care.


Thanks for reading!

Products I Actually Really Want

Hi everyone!

So, on this blog there is a lot of ranting and raving against certain products. But only once in a blue moon do I reveal what I actually want. Of course, I haul very specific and small-scale products, but I also have somewhat grander products on my wishlist.

Let's get into it.

I actually want the Wet 'n Wild Flights of Fancy Collection.The promotional image did not reveal the whole line, but I like what I see so far:


First- I love hummingbirds. Second, the cool-toned blush/highlighter- if it is good quality, seems right up my alley. It looks like three shadows, and one very grey-taupe swatch of perhaps a lip product? If it is, I am ready, Wet 'n Wild. I think the chevron print is a bit mismatched, but I'll keep my eyes peeled. This collection looks very promising. Hopefully it will be easier to find than the Goth-o-graphic collection, but I did not hear particularly glowing reviews about that one overall.


The L'Oreal Peach Scented Blush in basically all of the colors.
I don't want the eyeshadow palettes because I am perfectly satisfied, but something about the peach colors is intriguing to me. It also appears they have been selling them already in the UK?

The Jlo x Inglot collab. I really like Inglot a lot. I would not buy an entire palette because I can see that being rather expensive, but if there is a face powder, or an eyeliner, or something singular, I might pick it up.

And that's it....lol.

There are also new releases that I can appreciate, but am fairly confident I can dupe with my own stash:
-The Colourpop x Shayla Collab. I think it looks really fun and a great summer-fall palette.
-Laura Lee's Cute Patootie Palette. Let's get this out of the way- it is completely boring and very very light. But there is something calming about the color scheme to me. idk. Totally dupe-able, though.
-The BH Cosmetics Marvycorn Palette. Marvyn Macnificent, a German influencer, created this palette clearly inspired by Uniccorns. It has three pops of colors and the rest are neutral, so I wish it was a bit more out there, but I think he and Laura Lee are both putting out paint by numbers palette because they think that will be easier for their fans. Either way, I know nothing about Marvyn, just that it's a cute palette that I think will become a sleeper hit over here, as it was released in Europe first.

Weird Saturday eye of the day

I did my makeup twice today. Once to go out for coffee, and then again after I took a shower in the early afternoon. Such is a Saturday.

My first time I wore L'Oreal's Endless Sunshine all over my lid. It is a perfectly toned yellow gold for me, and I do enjoy it a lot.

After, I wanted to go for a brown smoky eye, but as the weekends are for me a time to experiment with shadows and technique, the smoky eye went off the rails, in a way I don't particularly hate.

At first, I used the Modern Renaissance + some Coastal Scents. Then, I added the PB & J palette in the mix.

I ended up not liking how the purple was in the inner corner, so I tried putting a white shimmer over it.

All in all, I think the look would have been perfectly serviceable without business in the inner corner, but oh well.

Thanks for reading!

Friday Pink and Peach eye of the day + flop

Let's get into the flop first.

I like to change up my routine every so often. This morning my skin felt a bit dry so I used my Hard Candy cooling priming stick. It played terribly with everything- concealer- powder-foundation- all of was sticking and clumping together. I think I might declutter it, but I like it a lot more during the warmer summer months when I just use it for touch-ups during the day.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming: my eye of the day, which I thought up last night around 9:30. I was inspired by two looks I found on instagram, one by @aaliyahjay and the other by @winter_meadows. Both of them played with warmer, brighter colors, and I knew I wanted a peachy-pink look topped with a complementary yellow gold.

This is what I got. I will note that I had a lot more trouble than usual getting the photo right:

The order of shadows is
Angel Face (light peachy cream) crease and brow
Inglot matte cool pink crease and lid
Colourpop Law Low (matte peach) crease
Fyrinnae Rapunzel Had Extensions first half of lid
Shiro Fleece Lined Pillow Fort (the perfect inner corner highlighter)

All in all, I liked this look, though I could be a little more generous with the eyeliner next time. I definitely appreciate the pink matte, and all the other colors I got to play with. This look made me realize how much I love Shiro's Fleece Lined shadow, and I wish Shiro would just make a pressed version that I could keep in my z-palette. Otherwise, I am down for buying a full size jar of it.

Thanks for reading!

Thoughts on the Nabla Soul Blooming Palette

Let's talk about instant, gut reactions to things, like makeup products. Sometimes they can be a good indicator of how effectively did the brand present their product.

When I saw the Nabla Soul Blooming palette, after days of thinking I was going to buy it, I gasped. And not in a good way.

Before I go any further, I want to remind you all that because this is an anti-haul, it will be a critical and at times negative perspective. This is done to curb spending, if needed.

So, let's look at this palette.

Let's also look at their very popular predecessor to this palette, the dreamy palette:

Add caption

Though I did not buy the Dreamy palette, I did shop my stash for it and wrote up a pretty large post about it.

While Soul Blooming is a lot more intense, color-wise, I do see a lot of parallels. 

I also see in the SB palette a very popular duochrome- a lavender-blue shift. This can be found as Twilight in the Huda Desert Dusk palette, as well as plenty of others, if you look at the dupes on Temptalia.

also $65, more product and colors

I also get Colourpop palette vibes from the SB palette.

Finally, I know for a fact that I can dupe the majority of the palette. I think many people can. The only two shades that are super distinct are the dark blue and periwinkle. Personally, I don't use those shades, but a person could easily get their hands on a single of those particular shades, actually use them, and save money.

I am quite disappointed and think that Nabla played it far too safe. Maybe next time, I guess.

Drugstore Dupes for Dreamsicle

Hello! I made a terrible quality video on shopping my stash to find possible dupes for Becca's latest release, the Dreamsicle Shimmering Skin Perfector (aka a highlighter).

Dreamsicle costs $38, contains 7 g of products, and looks like this:

It is geared toward medium and dark skin tones.

As I state in my video, I love orange makeup and found Dreamsicle to be pretty inspiring, which is why I shopped my stash and found possible alternatives for this product.

Option 1: Milani Holoraphic Beams, 4 g per pan (12 g total), for $13.00, the shade Otherworldly. It is a very orangey-gold powder that has a lot of sheen. I also reviewed and swatched it here. 

Option 2: Wet 'n Wild Precious Petals, 5.4 g for $5.00. More of a pink-toned, but still clearly orange and gold. I don't own Crown of My Canopy, but it also appears to be orange toned, as well, just darker. Also swatched in this post. 

Holographic Beams (l), Precious Petals (r)

My video and live swatches:

Thanks for reading!

An Ipsy Conspiracy?

Ipsy is a subscription box service that charges you $10 for a box of 5 cosmetic/skin-care/hair-care products. These products are from brands that can range from affordable, drugstore, to high-end. There are brands many makeup lovers would recognize right away: Too Faced, Tarte, Nyx, Urban Decay, The Balm, Smashbox, etc., etc.

And then there is a whole line-up of brands I have termed on this blog previously as "filler brands." 

I called them this because, as a makeup junkie and *cough* scholar, these brands had no identity to me, nor did I particularly like the products from them that I tried. These brands include:

• Tini Beauty
• Dirty Little Secret (DLS) Cosmetics
• Bang Beauty
• Luna by Luna Cosmetics
• Steve Laurent
• Trestique
• Manna Kadar
• Doucce
• Hikari

To me, all of these are similar because Beauty Boxes, not just Ipsy, seemed flooded with such brands. Brands that don't have much of an online presence. Brands that are both common, yet unknown. 

What is interesting to me is that when a person signs up for Ipsy, or wants to change the kinds of products they are getting in their bag, they take a profile quiz. One section of the quiz asks you to check off which brands you want to try or are familiar with:

Note. NONE of the brands I listed up there are included in the quiz. 

To be fair, this does not necessarily mean Ipsy is being underhanded. Perhaps the logic is- well, if you like/love/are familiar with brand x, you will enjoy brand y. 

Still, I think it speaks to the fact that there is a contrast between promise/specter of established and respected companies versus the prevalence of what feels like pre-fab brands. 

I have NEVER, by the way, received anything by Tom Ford. I have been an ipsy subscriber for 4 years now, and it was never even a possibility. 

Moving on, the reason my focus on the issue of brands has intensified is due to a recent discovery I made regarding two brands: Bang Beauty and Steve Laurent (hmm..a bit of plagiarism). On separate months, Ipsy was sending out blushes by both companies, that was housed in the same compact. 

For the record, I own an eyeshadow by Kiko Milano called Champagne that is also in a compact like this. I think it is common, but, the fact that Blushed and ST had the same compact initiated an investigation/solicitation for help, chronicled on the r/BeautyBoxes subreddit. The link is here. 

I found that the two companies had identical websites, as well as the same ingredients, though slightly different pricing. 

Basically, I learned that it is not just Bang Beauty and ST that are related. There are actually four sister companies, all owned by a Jersey entrepreneur, Emanuela DeFalco: Bang Beauty, Steve Laurent (also not a real person), Dirty Little Secret ( I believe was the starter company), and Luna by Luna Cosmetics (a tad redundant, no?). These are all the same. 

I reached out to ipsy for more info, including the cruelty-free status. They did not answer this part, but stated that both are "independently owned companies." Yes, with the same owner. 

Technically, each is an indie brand, but they don't feel indie to me. None of these products have strong brand identity. Aside from DLS, the products are way too expensive for their ingredients and their packaging. And these brands came from nowhere. 

If DeFalco is getting profit for each of her (separate?) companies based on their partnership with Ipsy, I am sure she is making $$$. 

So, let's bring it back to the issue at hand. The whole point of ipsy is to sample brands and products. But are we really getting variety? And how can ipsy claim a value of a bag, if the products offered by these particular brands are clearly inflated? And yes, as a consumer, it does have a lot to do with the name and styling. And how many more "sister brands" of other companies are there? 

In terms of these random internet brands, I don't see them as permanent. Again, they feel pre-fab. Or, to use another analogy, fast fashion. No brick and mortar distributors, no influencers, nothing.  I couldn't imagine buying something from them off their website, what would motivate me to do so? The only reviews you can find of them are paid advertisements and the ipsy ratings. 

I hate to say this, because it has been a long and interesting road, but the time has come. This sounds obvious now, but Ipsy is no longer fun, especially as I see it now as an ouroboros of marketing and profit. If I want makeup, I want it from brands that are as transparent as they can be, that I like and recognize, and that I find to be reasonable with their prices. 

One trick is determining whether or not a brand is sold anywhere else besides ipsy and their own website. If they have an Amazon page, is sold by Amazon, Sephora, or other stores, then I have trust in the company. 

It is possible that it is early days for this quadruplicate brand. I mentioned this on reddit. Think about Morphe's journey- they went from private labelled, generic products and packaging, to having enough capital to carve out a stronger identity. But again, having these separate companies is strange. Morphe is one. It is possible all four are not going to make it. And not only that, the nature of Morphe's pricing is a lot more appealing to me, though I have never bought from them before. 

I feel like I am rambling now.

Long story short- let the buyer beware when it comes to ipsy. But I do think it's important to be aware of what you need to beware of, in the first place.

Buh-bye!!!!

Upcoming on the Blog

I feel like it's been a hot minute since I updated the blog. Work is getting a bit hectic, as it usually does in April. However, I thought I would take the time to talk about some of the posts I have in the queue.

1.) Week in Review:
I've been tracking the products that I have been rotating through, and plan to talk about the week in total by Saturday or Sunday.

2.) Recent "Haul"
The way I do hauls is discuss the various new products in my collection, even though they might not have been purchased all at once. These include:

• 3 singles from Colourpop's new festival release ($12)
• two eyeshadows and one blush from Coastal Scents (~$5.00)
• BH Cosmetics Studio Pro Concealer ($6.00)
• Ma Fix + mini setting spray ($12.00) (in love with this)
• Stila balm in Grayson ($22-ouch)

3.) A post on the purple blushes I own! Because I feel it's been by sort of white whale, and I love purple products. 

4.) Another MASSIVE anti-haul. Seriously, I have been collecting and tracking all the new releases coming out. For the most part, I have not really been impressed with much, except for Becca's new Creamsicle highlighter. I have a feeling I might have something close to it in my collection already from Milani, but I just think it's a gorgeous, fun product. Ever since Lilac Geode I have never been the same, it seems. However, clearly from the tallied prices of all the recent purchases, I need to scale back again. I was going okay for a while, but I need to bring the low or, dare I say it, no-buy back. 

5.) More makeup inspo posts. My last one was a movie. I want to make one on a tv series, as well as just talk about the makeup looks I bookmark on instagram and talk about why I think they appeal to me. 

6.) April Ipsy. I literally almost forgot about that one. I even have the master post prepped, as well as the total bag values, but I have just been finding Ipsy really strange lately. I have posted in reddit about my suspicions regarding duplicate products and private label brands.

Anyway, a lot on the docket, and I am looking forward to it all!

Spring Cleaning + Eye of the Day

I literally spent the whole day cleaning. In my cleaning adventures,  I did find some makeup items I thought I had tossed that I decided to give a second go.

These included an unopened sample of Wet 'n Wild's face primer, as well as a depotted Bliss bronzer shade, from a palette I got from TJ Maxx on clearance.

The face primer is lotion-like, but has the same paint smell as the Photo Focus foundation. I did not really see any difference with my foundation, so I would not buy a full size of the primer.

The bronzer pan, however, is a tad more exciting because I don't have many bronzers in my collection, and this one is not as orange as my others. It's a very smooth and soft powder.

In terms of my eye look today, I wanted to title this post "Soft Glam," but I didn't want people thinking I was using the palette by ABH. I wanted to use the phrase to mean a more muted glam look, using very neutral colors. I did that with the following color palette:

From top to bottom, we have the Bliss bronzer shade, the metallic shade from the Pisces section of the Zodiac palette by BH Cosmetics, Raw Sienna from MR, and the top transition color and cream satin color from WnW's Not a Basic Peach palette. 

After I primed my eyes, I set my brow bone with the cream shade from the Not a Basic Peach palette. Then I blended the transition shade liberally in my crease up to my brow bone.

With Raw Sienna, I also blended that it, using the same brush to also apply it to the lid. 

Once that was done, I took a small concealer brush with synthetic bristles to apply Too Faced Glitter Insurance on the inner half of my lid. On top of that, I added the Pisces shade. 

I then lined my lids, and used Maybelline Colossal Volume mascara, which I have been really liking lately. 

I used the bronzer shade along the perimeter of my face. 

All in all, I liked this look a lot and will probably replicate it a bunch more times. The highly reflective nature of the BH Cosmetics metallics makes even the most neutral of colors special, which I appreciate. 

Next time, though, I would not apply Raw Sienna on the lid using the blending brush, because I did not get a lot of coverage that way. I do have tons of flat shader brushes, but I was too lazy to use them. 

Anyway, hope you have a lovely day! Thanks for reading. 

Maybelline Color Sensational: Sin-a-Mon (935)

This post is serving as a tentative eulogy for the shade Sin-a-mon.

As I've written about before on this blog, out of my entire lip collection, this color is the one I use the most every day. It belongs to the same line as cult faves Touchable Taupe (940), as well as Untainted Spice (950). I own both of those as well.

Why a eulogy? Because I've nearly finished up completely my tube of Sin-a-mon. I was gifted another by my mother, though that one is also almost finished up as well. My mother gave me hers after I told her how I was convinced the stores stopped carrying it.

I messaged Maybelline for more information, but I do suspect they are phasing this shade out. I used to buy it at Walmart and Target, and they no longer have the slot for it. The only store that has the slot is Walgreens, but it was completely empty.

Furthermore, you can buy Sin-a-mon off of Amazon...for $12.99. All the other colors are a little bit over $5.00, and do not go over $7.00 Why the noticeable discrepancy?

I can feel it. It's probably discontinued.

Will I miss it? I feel it was the most used up in my collection because it went with everything. It had subtle grey undertones which I really liked. There are very few like that in the drugstore, I feel.

So, why discontinue it? For some reason, I think this shade was hard to make. Now, we are moving in to allegation territory, but I have some ideas.

Let's compare the two tubes of Sin-a-mon in my possession:

Mine is on the left. It is a couple of months older than the one on the right. Note the discoloration of the stickers, and the difference in printing of batch codes. 

Now, the swatches. On the left, is mine, and the right my mother;s.

The one on the left is definitely cooler, with a stronger grey color. The right is definitely warmer and more brown.

What do I think this means? That there was inconsistency in formulation and shade. For whatever reason. And Maybelline decided Sin-a-mon was more trouble than it was worth, and discontinued it.

I'm not sure what I am going to do. It is now up to me to find a cool grey-undertone lipstick. Thanks, Maybelline.

(If I hear back from them with information, I'll update this post.)

Cinematically Inclined: Pacific Rim 2 (short review)

I was asked to accompany my younger brother to see the film Pacific Rim 2 today. My thoughts, including spoilers, are under the jump.

EoTD: Tints of Gold and Tangelo

Duping the Soft Glam Palette

Though I think there is something very beautiful about the Soft Clam palette, I can't deny that it is a very dupe-able palette. So I decided it would be fun to go through my collection and see what I can actually dupe!

1.) Tempera. Now, I owned Tempera in my Modern Renaissance palette. I have used up most of it, though. While there is still a teeny bit of usable powder left on the sides of the pan, I thought the best thing to do would be to use the dupe of Tempera that is in some of the new WnW palettes. There is one in the Not a Basic Peach palette that I swatched. Basically, any satin cream color will do. 

2.) Our first (there will be more) golden shade. Temptalia noted this as having an olive-tone. I myself used the shade Hype from the Tarteist Pro to Go palette, swatched below. I am not sure if that has the same precise undertones as Glistening, but do I care? No. 

3.) Orange Soda was easy for me. I have two dupes in my collection, both by Coloured Raine. I've got the single Angel Face, as well as the shade Heir in the Queen of Hearts palette. 

4.) Rose Pink: This is a berry shimmer- but more red toned/pink. I honestly do not own something like that. I have a cool-toned pink shimmer in the Eyes Cream palette, but that would not do. I ended up settling for the metallic shade from the Zodiac Palette from BH Cosmetics. It is from the Leo segment of the palette. Though it is highly metallic and lighter than Soft Glam, it does have a rose tone to it. 

5.) Sultry. The picture of the palette is a bit deceiving. It looks pink, but ABH describes this as a "chocolate brown." So I chose the metallic copper shade from the Pro to Go called Boss. It is gorgeous, and has a pink tint to it. 

6.) Bronze. I don't understand this one. This is another gold, but it is called bronze. It has a strong yellow/brown tone to it, nearly a duochrome, but swatches pretty straightforward as gold. I pretty much just shrugged on this one and used what I thought worked as an actual bronze shade (which I am not even sure what that means anymore), from the Too Faced PB & J palette: Peanut Butter Cup. 

7.) Mulberry. This is the Mulberry from the Carli Bybel palette. Unlike the ABH, it is satin, not ultra-matte. I love the formula on this one.

8.) Dusty Rose. I mean, it's pretty much Buon Fresco, right?

9.) Fairy. Another weak gold?! I am honestly shocked. I have seen countless pictures of this palette online, but it really did not occur to me how many sheer gold shades this palette contained.  I decided to use Bananas from the Too Faced PB & J palette because that is a sheer gold.

10.) Burnt Orange. I have it! It's in the MR palette.

11.) Sienna. This one caused me some contention. Temptalia said a lighter dupe is from the PB & J palette, the shade "Nuts About U." I then swatched Realgar from the MR palette, thinking that could work. I ended up not liking either as dupes. The picture below contains two swatches- the left the second transition color from WnW's Not a Basic Peach palette, and the second one "Crisp" from the Tarte Pro to Go. I think the WnW comes out on top.

12.) Rustic: A neutral mid-toned brown. I used Duchess from the Queen of Hearts palette, though that may be too dark.

13.) Cyprus Umber: From the MR palette.

14.) Noir: A matte black. I have two in my collection, and one I really like. It is from the Zodiac palette, which is swatched on the right.

(l) WnW, (r) BH Cosmetics

What did I learn?

When I originally learned of this palette, I knew there were so many parallels to the Modern Renaissance. But I still thought it was a stronger palette than the Modern Renaissance. For starters, the shimmer shades in the MR were way too similar, and one had pretty weak pigmentation (Primavera). The variety of shimmers in SG APPEAR to be more diverse.

But, as a result of this project, I learned that the shimmers are still an issue in this palette. Three shimmery golds is not something I am too happy about. The only shimmer I don't actually own is that Rose one, but I could always get a single or something, if I really wanted to.

Ultimately, I can replicate the palette enough in my own collection, and there is no pressing urge to buy it.