EoTD: Gold and Taupe

Greetings!

Today's look comes from two products: Covergirl's Blooming Blushes Quad, and the ABH Norvina palette.

I've done this look a couple of times before, but never seem to get great pictures of it. So basically, I take the pink-toned cream shade in the Blooming Blushes Quad and sweep it over my browbone and crease.

Then I took the taupe shade in the quad and blended it in and above the crease.

I took the shade Volatile from the ABH palette, which is a bit deeper, and blended it on the outer corner/crease.

I took the shade Summer, a bright gold/bronze and put in on the lid, blending into Dreamer, a light gold shimmer, into the inner corner.

Basically, I love how this look plays with warm and cool tones, and how much of an impact the contrast creates.

Other things to note- on my face today I wore my moisturizer with SPF, but on top of that I used Coty Airspun. I've never done that before! I really liked the results and plan on doing that again in the future.

Thanks so much for reading!!

I'm Not Going to Buy the White Peach Palette (dupe post)

But first let me preface this. There are some products out there that just stick with you, even if you've never bought it. Something about that product is like an earworm and you just can't, like Kylie Minogue, get it out of your head.

And I am ashamed to admit, but mine was the Too Faced White Peach palette, made even more alluring with it's discounted price of $22.

Let's look at it, m'kay?



Much of criticism this palette drew was due to the fact it so clearly pandered to lighter skin tones, all while being pretty same-y.

So what is my deal with this?

The color scheme are colorss that I know suit me. There are actually a lot of cool tones in this palette, which is interesting. And there is something calming about the color scheme of this palette- in the way that weighted blankets, oatmeal, and Law and Order, are calming to me.

But I am going to dupe it. Because I can. And because I don't need this palette.

Here we go. From left to right, top to bottom:

1.) Peach Cream: Light warm cream. I've got something from Colourpop (CP).
2.)Peach Suede: A warm-toned pink. I've got Love from the Norvina palette (ABH).
3.) Peaches and Dreams: From the swatches, this is like the most tepid light orange shimmer I have ever seen in my life. It kind of have a slight duochrome quality to it? I am going to go with Rapunzel Had Extensions from Fyrinnae, though RHE packs so much more of a punch.
4.) Creme de la Peach: Temptalia did not have a swatch for this, which is weird. But it looks like a super light matte orange. I would go with two from Coastal Scents on this one- either Tangelo Tint or Pumpkin Pie.
5.) Peach Sorbet: This is such a nothing shade, though, I am kind of at a loss. Like a very light peach. I...don't know yet.
6.) Glistening Peach: This pigment- the pink and gold duochrome- has been everywhere lately. It is in the Jaclyn Hill palette, a Hude palette, and it is in the Carli Bybel Deluxe Palette, which is the shade I am using.
7.) Peach Smoothie: A very light cool pink. The BH Cosmetics Take Me Back to Brazil has some that might work, but I am going to actually use a Covergirl quad for this one.
8.) Sweet Fig: Buon Fresco from Modern Renaissance.
9.) Peach Ice: A white shimmer. I would use for mine Soft Gold from ABH.
10.) Fuzzy:  A cool light brown
11.) Off the Grill: A warm black. Can be found anywhere.
12.) The "diamond"of the palette, a purple shimmer with a blackened base. Celestial by ABH, in the Norvina palette.

Thoughts?

So much redundancy in this palette my head is spinning a bit. If you have the Carli Bybel Palette or the Norvina palette or even the Jaclyn Hill palette or Huda you have this palette, k? There is no need to spend any amount on it. So hopefully this cured by strange obsession with this palette, and yours too, if applicable.

Makeup Minutia

Greetings!

So first things first, I picked up the Nyx jumbo pencil in Oyster. These products are nothing new, but I was watching one of Dustin Hunter's old videos on them and was inspired. I have a lot of purple/pink duochrome shadows and I think Oyster will act as a really nice base. I disagree with the claim that this particular shade can be worn in its own as a shadow, though.

Next, I have really been enjoying a minimal foundation look. I don't have any BB Creams, but I have been mixing my foundation with my moisturizer and have found the results quite nice.

A while ago I reviewed the LA Splash Arkitekt liner. My review was mostly positive, aside from my complaint that one of the bristles bent out of shape. Since then, a lot more are now sticking out of the brush and it is super frustrating. I am probably going to declutter this soon. There is no need to buy a new eyeliner completely, though, as I still have the Physician's Formula liner on deck. However, when I use that up, I want to try a higher end brush tip liner, either from Mac or Lorac.

Additionally, I have been seeing a lot of gorgeous eye art featuring chunky mixed glitters. However, I find that most cosmetic grade glitters for eye use are very finely milled and that the ones with larger pieces are not recommended for use near the immediate eye area. I kind of want to try glitter in some way, but don't want to risk it. I am also quite interested in the new Mac liquid shadows, so maybe those would be satisfying.

That's pretty much it for now! Tomorrow's post will be about using products I have not touched for a while, so I am super excited about that!

Buh-byeee!

The Pink Edit: My Favorite Pink Products, at Different Price Points!

Greetings!

I am very excited to present to you today's post on my favorite pink products. Pink is a very relaxing, sweet color, especially cool-toned pinks. So let's jump right in, from left to right, top to bottom.

1.) Boardwalk Marshmallow Clouds, by Bath and Body Works, $14.50, but I bought it on sale for about $8.00. The packaging of this container is pink, but I am including it in this post because the scent embodies pink. Described as "whipped vanilla, marshmallow meringue, white magnolia, and sandalwood," it is very sweet without being too cloying, and I have been wearing it all summer. The only problem is that it is not very long lasting, so I do have to reapply it 2-3 times during the day. I really do enjoy the scent! 

2.) The Norvina Palette, ABH. $42. I knew that I was going to get this palette as soon as I saw it. I have also been using this constantly all summer. The color scheme works for me, and I just love the rose and purple tones that come out of it. 

3.)  Maybelline Sensational Shine Compulsion in Taupe Seduction, $6.00. Another lip product in Maybelline's line called "Taupe," and not really Taupe. This is a cool-toned rose that gives an intense shine. It is definitely worth picking up. 

4.) Bite Beauty Matte Creme Lip Crayon, sample (full size $24) in Glace. I received this from Sephora as a birthday gift, and I honestly did not expect to love this. I thought I had this problem of Bite lip products wearing too warm on me, but this one does not disappoint. It's just...pretty. 

5.) Covergirl Eyeshadow Quad in Blooming Blushes, ~$7.00. I have a review on this coming up on the blog, but I will say the stand out shade in that quad is the pink. It is a cool-toned pink that is super soft and shows up well on my skin.

6.) Looxi Beauty Highlighter in Stripped, $7.50. This is an  iridescent cool-toned pink that, as a highlighter, wears smoothly on the skin.

7.) Looxi Beauty Eyeshadow in Tesla, $5.00. I have been on the hunt for a pink frosty eyeshadow and I don't think I will ever come across one as unique as Tesla. The pink is on the bubblegum side, and it is duochrome with a blue and green reflect. It is a gorgeous shadow!

8.)  Wet 'n Wild Megaglo Highlighter in the Sweetest Bling, $2.49. This is a limited edition highlighter Wet 'n Wild had on clearance. Original price was about $5.00. Now it can be found on Amazon for $10. I would not recommend buying that, though, because currently WnW sells Botanic Dream, which I've read is similar. Still, this is a gorgeous icy pink highlighter.

9.) Wet 'n Wild Zodiac Limited Edition Lipgloss, Cancer $2.50. I purchased this because it's my sign! I was a little scared because I was not sure how it would appear on my lips, but it is not stark white at all. It is a subtle pearly gloss and I would highly recommend it!

Onto the swatches~

From left to right, Maybelline Taupe Seduction, Bite Beauty Glace, Looxi Stripped, Looxi Tesla, Wet 'n Wild Cancer

What are your favorite pink-products?

Thanks for reading! (＾• ω •＾)

Favorite Shade from my Palette Collection (tag)

Hi everyone!

There is this tag going around that I thought is quite fun. Basically, it's my favorite shade in each palette that I own. What I think is quite cool is that people are swatching each of these shades next to each other to see what kind of "color story" emerges.

We're going to do that, too! For this I am using my big palettes as well as my small quads.

First row of shades:

From left to right:

1.) WnW, Not a Basic Peach Palette, Transition Shade #2. This shade can be found at the bottom of the palette. This is a very warm matte brown that probably can be found in so many other palettes, it is still my favorite.  Something about the pigmentation and formulation about this shade is far superior than the other shades in the palette, and really help create looks with more depth. 

2.) Tarte Pro to Go, Boss. This is a really fascinating color with somewhat of a shift.  It reminds me of a more brown-toned Ardency Inn Rose Gold pigment. I don't wear this as often as I should. 

3.) Physician's Formula Classic Nudes, Matte #2. This was a very underrated release, and in the palette, this shadow looks a lot darker than it is. The formula for this quad is extremely easy for me to work with, and I love the slight olive tone to this matte brown. 

4.) Too Faced PBJ palette, Peanut Butter. The depth and opacity for me is perfect, and Peanut Butter is an excellent, easy to use shade to infuse warmth into a look. As a whole, that palette still excites me and I still really enjoy using it. 

5.) BH Cosmetics Zodiac Palette, Leo Shimmer. This is the perfect purple-pink frost that I am obsessed with. For some reason I feel like this cool-toned pink/purple is very elusive, and the quality of the metallic shades in this palette are much different than what I am used to from BH Cosmetics. In the past, the baked shadow formula was a bit dry and loose, but these do have a creamier, wetter consistency. 

6.) BH Cosmetics Carli Bybel Deluxe Palette, shadow #?? One thing I noticed is that this palette was able to include a lot of very trendy shades, including this rose-brown. It is more pink the Buon Fresco from ABH, and I just think this particular color captures the aesthetic of the palette itself. It also is a really lovely color and shadow.

7.) BH Cosmetics Take Me Back to Brazil Palette. This is a pressed pigment shadow this is nearly neon, and is a bright yellow that leans a little green. My eye goes immediately to that color. The way I use it is above the crease, blending it in with a more brown and neutral transition color.

8.) Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts Palette in Crown. This is a white duochrome that flashes gold and pink. I accidentally mixed in some of that neon shade from the Back to Branzil palette. In real life, it does not have that slightly yellow tone. Out of all the gorgeous mattes and shimmers in that palette, I never would have predicted that my favorite and most used shade would be this, but I can't help it. It goes well with all my shadows, and it is one of the few shades that I prefer to have in the inner corner of my eye. 

9.) ABH Modern Renaissance in Realgar. To me, this is one of the defining shades of the MR. It is an orange toned brown matte, and it gives beautiful depth to any warm toned look.

10.) ABH Norvina, Rose Gold. I mean....just look at that. For me, though I do have many rose-gold shades, this is the only one in my collection that leans a bit cooler, being a true rose. That distinction is what makes this shade so beautiful to me. 

Overall, it is clear that I love warm tones, but ....not when it comes to pink. All of the pink shades in this post lean cool, which I think is so interesting. And I do enjoy mixing warm and cool shadows together. 

I am very surprised that I didn't pick any golds, but now that I think about it, my favorite golds are all singles. It is possible that none of the palettes I own have a gold tone that outranks all the other shadows in the palette. 

If you have any of these palettes, do we have the same shade? Let me know your thoughts! 

Thanks for reading! ❀◕ ‿ ◕❀

Random Face Trios! (Day 1)

To get more use out of my single-compact products, I decided- through a ramdomizer- to sort and select one highlighter, blush, and bronzer, to do a look with. I could have done this for eyeshadow too, but I wanted my eyeshadow look to be inspired by the face products that were selected.

I thought this would be a good way to decide what I like about each product, as well as how they work together.

So, the three face powders I will be using are:

1.) Tarte Blush Feisty, described as a "golden nude," which doesn't seem quite right. Going off of my swatch, it seems to be a bright peach leaning pink.

-Initial thoughts: I've never actually used this since getting in an Ipsy bag a few months ago, and I am glad it was picked, as I am curious about this formula and the color.

-After applying it: This is a very natural looking, easy to use blush. It is a bit sheerer than I would have preferred, but for daily use

2.) Hard Candy Party Girl Baked Bronzer. This is a rose-brown bronzer with a luminous finish.

-Initial thoughts:  I have reviewed it here. I really like this bronzer, but I tend to use it as a combination blush-bronzer. I am not too sure how it's going to work with the Tarte blush. That's a lot of pink.

-After applying it:
It did work well with the blush, though I thought it was still a bit too warm for the bronzer. However, it was very subtle on the skin and I can see why these blushes seem to last forever.

3.) Revlon Color Charge Highlighter.

-Initial thoughts: I am kind of glad this one was picked because the bronzer is so luminous. This highlighter is not too intense, so I am hoping that these three products combined will create a flushed glowing look.

-After applying it: it wore a lot more golden than pink on the skin, which I was impressed with. I still really like this highlighter, even though Revlon and the collection it was a part of was a bit of a fail imo.


Pictures and swatches of the face products:

Feisty, Party Girl, Revlon highlighter

Would I wear this combo again?

I would wear the highlighter and the blush together again, but leave the Hard Candy Bronzer out. I am still of the firm belief it is good worn on its own, for very natural looks.

Anti-Haul: Trixie Mattel x Sugar Pill Collab

To start, I should note that I am going to approach this through the eye of someone who has never used Sugarpill Cosmetics. The brand strikes me as geared or at least friendly to pros, given their offerings of large pans of color, and their higher price tag.

Their most recent collab with drag queen Trixie Mattel strikes me as a bid to appeal to the more everyday consumer.

I mean, I don't mean to be mean, but it kinda looks like a Tarte palette.

Notice how the palette is adorned with yellow roses, even though yellow is not a featured color in the palette? Nice.

A couple of reasons I will be skipping this include the fact that I am not a Trixie Mattel fan. I hate how she was brought back in her season, and she got a lot of praise for mediocrity, while other queens were ignored. I think a lot of viewers saw themselves in Trixie, and made her out to be more interesting/special than she was. That's my hot take.

I am surprised by how low key and boring this palette is. Perhaps because The Little Twin Stars palette (which I thought looked cool) was not received well, Sugar Pill is trying a different approach to compete with other makeup companies? But the Twin Stars palette didn't have great pigmentation. That doesn't necessarily mean that people don't want color.

And before I continue, I know that neutral palettes are and always will be loved. But a limited edition collab should be fun, interesting, and special. If I did not know who Trixie Mattel was, or even Sugarpill, I'd guess this was a Lorac palette.

And guess what, with the liquid lip included, it costs $52.

Hm.

May I suggest two other face and eye palettes that I personally think are more interesting?

1.) BH Cosmetics x Its My Raye Raye Palette, $22

2.) The Balm Alternative Rock Face Palettes, $27.50

Sorry, Sugarpill.

Does the Modern Renaissance expire?

We're going to talk about the Modern Renaissance, I palette that I bought in August 2016. So, two years ago to the day. As you may or may not know, the palette has a shelf life of 6 months. After which, the quality of the shadows may be affected. This short shelf-life is due to the ingredients.

Now, I can't speak for everyone's experience. But I can show you swatches of the four colors that many claim have "turn bad," as a sign that the palette has "gone bad."

Before I do, I don't think fear-mongering is the right approach. If you sanitize your powder products, and they do not smell or affect your skin, they can last a good amount of time. In terms of the feel of these red-toned colors in particular, they have become grittier, but I find they perform pretty much the same.

Have they turned brown? No.

Here are the brush swatches.

Red Ochre, Venetian Red, Love Letter, Realgar

And the finger swatches:

Red Ochre, Venetian Red, Love Letter, Realgar

The colors are still pretty vibrant and distinct. In my opinion, Red Ochre and Venetian Red became more sheer than I remember, but if anything it makes it easier to work with.

To wrap up. Yes, makeup changes a bit the longer you have it. Just take care of it and use your own discretion.

Brands I Plan to Try This Year

This is a bit of a wish-listy post that is different than my usual ant-haul spiel. I've just been seeing a lot of affordable brands come out with truly interesting products and I plan to sample from them.

Of course, this means buying and expanding my palette collection, which I don't know if I necessarily want to do. Of course, if any of these brands decides to start putting out singles, I wouldn't mind, either.

1.) Makeup Revolution. I am swayed. After swatching the Soph X Palette and reading reviews on their Chocolate Bar palettes (a line that is continually added to in new and fun ways), I am resolved to try them. Right now the products I specifically have my eye on can be found in Ulta, but I've seen some Makeup Revolution products in TJ Maxx. Go figure.

2.) Juvia's Place. I have been low-key (beautuber voice) obsessed with the Douce for a while, but...that mint green. One, I already have it, and two, I don't use it. If they come out with another mini palette with the smaller pans, which I am sure they will, I will gladly buy it.

3.) Bad Habit Beauty. I know many people are divided on the "ethics" of mimicking or duping palettes. But the thing is. I was never going to buy Natasha Denona anyway. I was never going to buy Pat McGrath anyway. In the case of ABH, the Mario palette is long gone. So I really do appreciated Bad Habit making these things- that I NEVER would have tried otherwise- available to me.

Temptalia reviewed recently one the palettes they made that dupes Pat McGrath's Subliminal palette. The price difference between the two is $101.00. Ell oh ell. And though she gave the BHB palette a C- total, the most interesting colors for me scored in the B range, and are listed as the top dupes (in a very short list) for the PMcG palette. So. yeah, I do intend on trying a palette from them in the future. Probably one that dupes another higher brand.

So that's my short list! Have you got any products from these brands? If so, what are your thoughts?

Thanks for reading.

Local Ulta Opening + Haul

So today was a bit of an event. It was the opening of a local Ulta, and so many people just flocked there. I swatched a whole bunch of things, some of which had never been swatched before, so naturally I have some thoughts.

I also bought a couple of things.

Let's first go into what I swatched like a madwoman. Honestly, if the store wasn't so crowded, I probably would not have been so brazen about it, and probably would have limited the number of things I swatched.

1.) Mac

The Mac section of the store was super intense and professional-feeling. I swatched the highlighting trios in the square pans. The powders were silky and gave off a gorgeous and smooth sheen. It is no wonder why the palettes are so highly rated (and pricey).

The new Dazzle something liquid eyeshadows- I swatched an iridescent glitter, which was very pretty but took rather long to dry down, as well as a metallic warm pink, which dried fairly quickly and did not budge on my hand. I am strongly considering buying those in the future. For me, my eyes tend to react better to liquid eyeshadows with a metallic finish, such as the pink shade, and not to glitter toppers, which contain larger particles of glitter which seem to irritate my eyelids.

2.) Stila

I swatched a green eyeshadow duo, as part of their line of jewel tone duos. It was fine, but I don't really understand the functionality of this line. Basically the same tone of color with slightly different finishes? I wasn't blown away by the pictures of this product, and was less impressed by them in person.

Liquid eyeshdow- Sea Siren and another pink shade I cannot recall. Sea Siren was gorgeous, a cool pink with a blue-lavender shift. It is an Ulta exclusive, and I would strongly suggest purchasing that in the future.

Additionally, I swatched the putty highlighter in the iridescent shade. I was just curious about the texture of the product really. It is soft, but still powdery feeling, if that makes sense. The shade was quite pretty.

3.) Becca x Chrissy Teigen highlighting powder. I don't really care about Becca as a company anymore, but the powder was pretty. But of course it would be.

4.) Morphe 350 Palette Shimmer. One blogger I read commented that Morphe's shimmers are really good, but when I swiped my finger across a gold one (the palette that had not been previously swatched) the pay-off was barely there. It required more pressure from me, but at that point I had already moved on.

5.) Makeup Revolution- Various Palettes including the Chocolate Bars and SophX Collab. Okay, Makeup Revolution is the winner for me. The palettes were way better than I expected. I am extremely likely to purchase something from them in the future. Especially from that SophX palette- I swatched a pink matte and a green shimmer- and both would not rub off my hand.

6.) The shimmer and glitter from the Ulta Melissa Michelle collab palette. They were extremely chunky. A pass from me.

7.) The L'Oreal Paradise Enchanted palette. I should have swatched the mattes, as those are harder to formulate, but as I cannot resist shiny things I swatched two coppery shimmers. They were surprisingly opaque. The palette also has a distinct peach smell, which even though it was artificial, it was not unpleasant.

What I almost got:

The Laura Geller Gilded Honey highlighter mini, for $15. Couldn't do it. I knew I have so many highlighters already, but I was so close!

What I actually got:

From left to right, I got the Goodbye Blemish Liquid Patch from I Dew Care, the Essence Ultra Last Instant Color lipstick in So Ungreytful, and the Essence Volume Booster lash primer. Reviews for each product are on their way, but as a whole I am pleased with what I purchased.

The only little disappointment is that the Ulta does not carry BH Cosmetics, but I hope they will eventually. It was really cool seeing it on its opening day. Everyone- associates and customers alike- were super excited.

Thanks for reading!

More Makeup Ramblings, a text post and an anti-haul addendum

An addendum to my anti-haul of the Lemonade Palette by Christian Dominique, that is. I'll be so bold to say I may have predicted the problems with the shimmers- saying that they were not vibrant enough. CD then went and corrected these issues, and Temptalia reviewed the palette, giving it a very high score of A-.

Now, I am not about to buy another palette out of nowhere. I just bought the Norvina palette. But it does grind my gears a tad that two of the highest rated colors in the Lemonade palette, Pink Lemonade and Strawberry, are the exact types of pink that I have been looking for. 

Now, I don't usually do this, but I am going to show you the swatches of those two colors that Temptalia provided in her review, along with my commentary on those swatches. 

                                  

I believe Pink Lemonade is on the left, and Strawberry on the right. Temptalia described both of these as "warm toned" pinks, which I do not agree with at all. These strike me as more bubble-gum cool toned pinks, which is exactly what I have been looking for. I do think that warmth or lack thereof is all relative, though, and out of context I can see how these could skew warm.

But it concerns me that such similar shades can be found in one palette. Even on Temptalia's website, she cites the same shadows as dupes for each of them. This tells me that the industry has had trouble formulating these shadows for some reason, and there are just not enough of them out there. 

So, the fact that these colors are specifically ones I am craving, in a palette that I anti-hauled, seem to perform so well, compared to the palette I actually got, which contains the cool-toned pink shimmer (Wild Child, Norvina) rankles. 

I still don't know why there are two of them in the palette, but w/e. Overall, I do think the Norvina palette is more interesting to me than the Lemonade palette, but I do applaud Dominique Cosmetics for re-issuing a palette and not going over the top with the hype machine. It was a very subdued release, and definitely makes me interested in any future releases. 

Let's keep going! 

So Natasha Denona thinks we care about her brand anniversary (how very Too Faced), and is releasing a Safari palette. It's going to be as Safari as Taylor Swift Wildest Dreams I'll tell ya what. 

No, I will never be convinced that her palettes are worth it. And I truly question the eye of her design team. The Camel palette was atrociously and aggressively bland, especially when the brand already has those colors out there in those kinds of smaller palettes. The Safari Palette will have a lot of earth tones, which could be really pretty, but we'll see what they decide to do. As of now, they have a black and white photo to generate hype but that's so played out.

Finally, I think Mac somewhat embarrassed themselves yesterday. They would not release the name of the person they were collaborating with, and instead featured a signature of the person with a prominent B for the first name, on top of an outline of Texas. Of course, everyone wanted it to be a big name like Beyonce or...Bunny (wut), but instead, they revealed it to be the designer Brandon Maxwell. You can view his runways over at GoFugYourself, and I am actually quite fond of his designs- very simple and chic, if not a tad boring. As a collaboration, I think Mac should have just revealed who it was upfront. Instead, they invited a maelstrom of comments that really did illustrate what people want- big names in popular culture and the online community. Because when they announced his name finally, it was going to be a letdown, which it did not have to be. 

And so, those are my rants for tonight! Did I miss anything? As always, thanks for reading. 

Wet 'n Wild Zodiac Lipgloss in Cancer, Virgo, and Pisces: Review and Swatches

The lipgloss train keeps on rolling! For $2.39 each, I picked up these three really pretty glosses from Wet 'n Wild. Gloss is making a comeback, and drugstores are making glosses with visible shimmer (my own little obsession) readily available.

The first shade I'll talk is Cancer. I felt compelled to buy this one because that is my sign, though I was skeptical. In the container, it just looks white. However, the gloss is actually much more complex, interesting, and flattering than that. It is a white-pink duochrome, with a slight golden sheen. When you apply it to the lips at first, you can see the white transform into a pearly pink. It's quite interesting! As the gloss wears down, you are left with a slightly milky pearly pink tint on your lips.

I did not think Cancer was going to be flattering, but I have been reaching for this gloss all week.

Pisces, Cancer, Virgo

Virgo, Cancer, Pisces

The next shade we can talk about is Pisces. Pisces is a very sheer pink gloss with loads of pink, purple, gold, and orange shimmer. The shimmers are especially visible in the out of focus, dark photo below.

Though it contains a lot of shimmer, the particles do not feel gritty on the lips, and wear easily. This gloss leaves a slight pink tint on the lips, with of course, a shimmer. Something about the final look on the lips is delicate but glamorous.

Finally, we have Virgo, the most pigmented gloss of this trio. It has a red-brown sheer base with green and silver shimmers. To me, it feels more appropriate for Fall, but I have been enjoying it. It has a more frosty effect than Pisces, but it is still very shimmery.

 These have a good wear time for glosses, 1-2 hours. They are a very light, slippery, but not oily or sticky formula.

They keep the lips from getting dry, but I wouldn't say they are necessarily moisturizing.

Overall, I am very impressed with these glosses, and would highly recommend them. I don't see myself getting anything else from this collection, though. I have enough face and eye powders. I do hope Wet 'n Wild continues making interesting and beautiful products like this.

Thanks for reading! 

Weekly Makeup Ramblings

Hello!

It's been a minute here on my blog, and to be honest I have not been that motivated to post. This week I feel like my eyes needed a break from makeup, so I have not been packing too much product on them this week.

Still, I have been using makeup, and I thought I would give my thoughts on recent things in the beauty world. I do have a Beauty Bookmarks in the works, as well.

1.) The Norvina Palette. I still hate my swatch post and intend to redo it. On the whole, though, for the couple of weeks I have been using it, I have been really enjoying it, and really like how it goes with my other products and singles. The shimmers are actually quite distinct from each other and each clearly serve their own purpose, which was one of my main concerns before buying the palette. I love Wild Child, even though it is frustratingly sheer, and I plan to look into bubblegum pink shimmers from indie brands as soon as I pan it.

The mattes are great, but I will say that for me, I keep my looks pretty basic- 1-2 colors in the crease, 1 on the lid, etc. I am just not talented and physically incapable (given my protruding eyes) of doing complex cut creases. So for me, this is a really lovely and high quality palette, excellent for cooler-toned looks, and easy enough to use.

2.) Foundation. I have stopped using foundation all over my face this past week, because I can't stand it. It is way too hot for that, and weirdly enough my skin has been feeling dry lately. So, I take my moisturizer with SPF, mix it in with a couple of drops of foundation, and that's it. Concealing under the eyes etc etc is out of the question.

3.) GLOSS. Lip gloss. I have been wearing lip gloss all week, and I love it- specifically ones with bits of visible shimmer in it. I bought three from the Wet 'n Wild Zodiac collection (review coming soon), the Pixi Lip Icing gloss, as well as an indie one from Silk Naturals, and have been pleased with all of them.

4.) Highlighter. I have really really been in the mood for pink highlighters lately. I think pink in general has been a big obsession. My love for Becca Lilac Geode is unfailing, but I want to also start using The Sweetest Bling by Wet 'n Wild, again.

5.) TV. I don't really watch TV in the conventional sense, just a lot of YouTube and Netflix. I have caught up completely to the BBC crime show Shetland, which is currently filming their fifth season, and I can't wait. I am also back to re-watching Absolutely Fabulous, because that show is a masterpiece. Truly.

6.) Drama? Does anyone else think by collaborating with Rich Lux, Jeffree Star is controlling what kinds of videos Rich makes? Did Rich ever address this? Because so far, since their collab (which I did not see) he's made videos on people that J* has had tiffs with, like Huda. But is he ever going to make a video ON J* ever again? Or does RL feel beholden unto J* for a boost in supscreebers? Inquiring minds want to know.

SO, that's it for now! I do have some reviews in store, so stay tuned :)