Wet 'n Wild Platinum Bar Highlighter in Winter Bloom: First Impressions and Swatches

Look what I found at Walgreen's today! Wet 'n Wild, for the holidays, has released an expanded line of their Gold Bar Highlighter from last year. I picked up the lightest one, Platinum Bar, aka Winter Bloom, to try out. It cost $5.00.

 The packaging is a little unwieldy, and was hard for me to open with my nails. Unfortunately, when I tried to use the end of my highlighting brush as a lever, it scraped a bit of the product.

The mirror is useful, but difficult to slide out. The product information sticker was over the grip, so I couldn't slide the mirror out without peeling off that sticker.

Winter Bloom is a very pale gold. At first I was afraid it would be too similar to some highlighters in my collection, but I do think it is distinct.

 From top to bottom we have finger swatches of the entire pan mixed together, than just the star, and then without the star.

In the below pic, I compared Winter Bloom (top) to Full Moon from Physician's Formula Butter Palette (middle), and Kat Vom D's Thundercrunch (bottom)

Below we have some uncomfortably close pictures of my most bare face with the product applied to my browbone and cheeks. It went on very intensely, so I wonder how it will perform with a base that is already primed with translucent powder.

Overall, I think the color is a good match for me. The formula is very smooth and the finish is very intense and shiny. I look forward to using more of this highlighter!

Colourpop The Good Sport Palette: Review and Swatches

Usually I like to wait for reviews to come out before I buy a palette, but when I saw previews of the Good Sport palette, I did not wait. The autumnal color scheme just spoke to me.

This was the very first Colourpop 12-pan palette that I have ever purchased. I do have some singles, both matte and shimmer. 

This palette cost $16.00, about $21, with shipping. A full size CP single shadow contains 1.5 g of product, while the shades in this palette are each 1 g of product, which I think is an excellent value. 

As always, click on the pics for a closer look.

The above swatches is the first row of shades. 

1.) Wild Out: A champagne shimmer. It is a bit darker than Stila Kitten. It is very creamy and works well with both warm and cool shades. 

2.)Hooky: This is an extremely pigmented but soft brown-orange. It reminds me of Realgar from Modern Renaissance. This was a shade that was very easy to work with. 

3.) Rookie: A brilliant copper shimmer packed with blue micro glitters. I was concerned that the blue glitters could potentially fall out, but that did not happen. The formulation of this shade is really impressive. 

4.) Sista: 😞😞😞

This is a matte fuchsia. The formulation was terrible. It would not adhere to the skin unless the lid was tacky- very difficult for me to blend in the crease. I could not even swatch this with my finger, but even with a brush I had to be careful because it would blend away to nothing.

The above picture is the second row of shadows.

5.)Licious: A slightly green-toned yellow gold shimmer. The same excellent formula as Wild Out.

6.) High Hopes: Reminds me of Oatmeal Tan from Coastal Scents. A lighter warm brown matte. Very creamy and blendable.

7.) Reckless: A deeper matte eggplant/aubergine. This was a brush swatch on dry un-primed skin because finger swatches were not possible. It was not as blendable as the other mattes, but I could still work with it.

8.) Trooper: My favorite shade, a slightly orange toned golden rod matte. I am very pleased with this shadow because it does not change color in the crease, which happens often with me when using shades like this. This shadow is very blendable and pigmented.

 And finally, the last row.

9.) Hooked: A slightly olive-toned taupe shimmer. I love shimmers like these. They feel sophisticated to me.

10.) Trophies: A cool-toned dark brown. The formulation on this is excellent- soft and easy to work with.

11.) EBB: A stunning yellow-toned green shimmer. Excellent formulation.

12.) Flow: Out of all the matte purples in this palette, this one got the most mileage from me. Pigmentation was excellent, but it was not as soft as the other neutral mattes n the palette.

I also have a picture, for some reason, of all the shimmers together:

From left to right: Wild Out, Rookie, Licious, Hooked, and EBB

Let's look at some eye looks:

 In the above, I had Sista on the lid, Wild and Out on the inner corner, and Flow and Reckless in the crease and outer corner. I also glued some glitter from Amerikan Body Art on the inner corner as well. I hated this look, and this was my second time trying to use the purples. I don't mid how the outer corner looks, I just really do not like the sharp line on my lid. Blending did take a long time, though. The first time around I tried using Sista in the crease and that was a hot mess.

This look was in conjunction with the Norvina palette. I used Volatile, a taupe, in the crease, and Trophies then blended in on the outer corner. I used Hooked on the lid, and then a glitter from Amerikan Body Art- Cosmic Collision, on top of that. I really liked how simple but multi-layered this was.

This is like a staple look from me, but it's kind of rough. An improved version of this look can be found below:

So, I have Trooper in the crease, High Hopes in the crease and lid, and Hooky and Reckless on the outer corner. It is kind of hard to see, but Licious is in the inner corner. I like this look a lot. 

Final thoughts:

I really like the formulation of almost all of these shadows, except what was going on with the purples. That's a shame to me, because the purples are- for me- part of the selling point. I am not saying they are they worst ever. 2 out of 3 of them are usable ( I do consider Sista unusable), they just take a bit more effort.

All in all, I am happy to have this palette, and look forward to using more of it!

Oh, I almost forgot! I did reorganize the palette. I'll show you the before and after:

Before:

After:

What's In my Small Z-Palette?

Greetings! I've been a little MIA since work started up again, but I do have some makeup related things to share in some upcoming posts. One post in particular is dedicated to a rather concerning trend I am seeing with recent releases- packaging fails. Such fun! Today's post, however, is another look into my small z-palette.

The z-palette is a Coastal Scents 12-pan palette, and usually I fill it with the single shades curated from my larger z-palette. I find that I rotate through the shades quite consistently.

This is the palette as of today:

I really like how the columns ended up being quite monochromatic.

Shiro: Fleeced Lined Pillow Fort	Dose of Colours: Berries 'n Cream	Colourpop: Lay Low	Colourpop: Howlin'
Coloured Raine: Angel Face	Coastal Scents: Oatmeal Tan	Colourpop: Making Moves	Dose of Colours: Blueberry Swirl
Looxi: Bohemian	Looxi: Boujee	Looxi: Mirage	Looxi: Charmed

The first row is primarily matte/satin. I want to make more progress on Berries 'n Cream, the slightly pink-toned cream. I find I have been using pink more often, so this shade would work well. I also want to get more use out of Lay Low. It reminds me of a lighter, more tightly pressed Love from Norvina, and the two do work well together. And I have been using Howlin' lately, so I decided to put it in this palette just to make it easier to reach for. 

In the second row, Angel Face has a significant dip to it, but I have not used it for a couple of months while it was in the larger z-palette. But I have been in the mood to use it, so I thought it would make sense to place it in here. I also wanted a semi-neutral brown in the palette, and I know I have not been using Oatmeal Tan, though this is a repurchase after inadvertently giving it away the first time.  Making Moves is such a bright and pigmented color, but easy to blend, and I am curious to see how it will behave with Lay Low, which is why they are placed next to each other in the palette. 

The final matte in this row is Blueberry Swirl, such a smart shadow from Dose of Colors. It is the perfect transition between pink/purple and brown. It works well with both warm and cool tones. It's pigmentation is not too intense so I feel I can control the depth of this color with ease.

The final row is of my relatively new Looxi shadows. I have one more, Tesla, in the larger z-palette. I use Mirage the most, which is ironic to me because that is the shade I had the worst first impressions of. What I like about it is that, like w/ Blueberry Swirl mentioned above, it plays with warm and cool. It also has dimensions of different colors, which makes this an easy to use stand alone color.

Bohemian looks like a standard rose gold copper shade a la Amber Rush, but actually has a spark of silver, as well as small purple glitters. It is very striking and I want to use more of it this month. I also want, nay need, to use Boujee, a shadow that appears gold, but actually has a rainbow like shift. It is magical and I hereby resolve to use more of it. Last is Charmed, a duochrome, that I am still figuring out how to use in a way that is flattering. 

So that's it! Do you have any of these colors? Let me know in the comments below!!

Today's Face in Review

On my face today I wore:

I have bolded the specific products I am going to discuss in terms of longevity.

1. L'Oreal Honey Eye Gel
2. Cerave AM Lotion (SPF 30)
3. Colourpop No Filter Concealer
4. Maybelline Fit Me Concealer 
5. Wet 'n Wild eye primer
6. Too Faced Glitter Insurance: Along with the Wet 'n Wild primer, this keeps my eyeshadow last all day.
7. Norvina Palette: Lid- Volatile, inner third- Summer, Inner-corner Dreamer
8. Dose of Colors (depotted) Single in Blueberry Swirl from the Eyes Cream Palette. 
9. Colourpop Singles in Hear Me Out (cream color, used to set primer) and Howling
10. LA Splash Art-ki-Tekt Eyeliner. Falling out of love with this liner. Not only did more of the bristles start poking out, today it ran a bit. Not happy with that in the least. 
11. Pixi 188 Mascara
12. Essence Lash Princess Mascara
13. Pixi Clear Brow Gel
14. Blush Pixi Beach Rose. I was a bit disappointed with blush today. Usually when I pair it with Makeup Geek's Puppy Love, it lasts a good amount of time. Today I just felt like using Beach Rose on its own, but by the end of the work day, it was gone. 
15. Highlighter- Too Faced Diamond Light. This lasted the full 12 hours. I was blown away. Everything about this highlighter I love.
16. Jordana Cream Contour in Light (Bronzer and Contour)
17. Shiro Powder Contour (Grey toned- to set the contour). I really like this idea, and am very pleased with myself. Basically, the Jordana stick is a bit warm toned, but works really well as a bronzer. However, using it on the face can be a bit tricky, especially if one does get oily over the course of the day. Using the grey-toned powder by Shiro extended the length of the look because it set the cream contour, but also added a more natural grey cast to the contour/hollows of my cheeks. 
18. Lips- Aquafor Something has been going on with my lips. I think it may be the sudden influx of cold weather. But out of all the balms I have been trying, Aqufor works best. 

 Howlin', Blueberry Swirl, Volatile, Summer, Dreamer. Using all the mattes together was a kind of spur of the moment thing but I really thought they worked together. Blueberry Swirl was truly the perfect transition color, and I feel that perhaps I am just getting better at picking transition colors.

I don't like Dreamer, the light pink gold in the inner corner. I don't think it looks too natural, but it does look great on the lid.

So that's it for now! Thanks for reading.

Products I Did Not Expect to Love, pt 2

Greetings once again! Today I have a slate of products that I did not expect to love. As explained in my last post, it is not so much that I bought the products expecting to hate them, but I learned to appreciate them the more I used them. So essentially, my first impressions were wrong. Muany of these were not risky purchases, either, so my initial expectations were not the highest.

Let's begin!

1.) Coty Airspun. I was gifted this a long time ago by a friend who knew, clearly, what was up. Unfortunately, I was not at that level. Also, the powder was too dark for me. So I ended up giving it away to someone else. Years later, I found a transparent Airspun at Walmart for super cheap so I decided to try again. The smell took a while to get accustomed to, but I've learned to apply it over a dried primer/moisturizer, as well as blended out concealer, and you're all set. For me, the powder looks great over a minimal base, not caked on top of foundation. I have been using it during the summer as an alternative to liquid foundations, and have really liked the results!

2.) Covergirl Quad Palette in Blushing Blooms 720. This quad is not new to Covergirl's line, just repackaged. Out of the four shades, the glitter one is a total dud, but the satin-mattes show up really well. The cream is pink-toned, the pink and taupe are cool toned and blend and build up beautifully. They have a silky smooth texture and are very easy to work with. I was a little hesitant because I did not have great memories of Covergirl's eyeshadows, but that changed when I noticed the shadows have a similar look and consistency to the Maybelline "slurry" (coined by Musings of a Muse) formulation.

3.) Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Mini Bronzer. This was a bargain buy from TJ Maxx, and I did not expect to like this because I got the wrong shade. However, I have been using a very light hand, and placing it in areas one would apply a blush, and I have been really enjoying the results.

4.) Milani Prep + Set + Glow Illuminating Transparent Powder. This one was a bit of a risky purchase, though Mel (formerly Puffin's Wife) sung this powder's praises. I find I am very cautious when it comes to transparent powders, because I just don't have that much experience with them. However, I really like this powder. One: It smells amazing. Seriously.. it is very fresh. I would not wear it as a perfume, but I really enjoy smelling it as a "palate cleanser" to the Coty lol....Two: I had underestimated how silky, and subtly radiant this powder would be. It is definitely worth a try.

5.) BH Cosmetics Concealer. I had tried BH face products in the past, but I did not find them notable. However, the concealer from their Pro Line surprised me. It is somewhat dry, not as dry as Colourpop, but easy to blend and gives off a radiant finish. I also though its lasting power was notable. I have very nearly used up all of it, and I would consider repurchasing it once I finish off the rest of my concealers.

Have you tried any one these? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!