Today's EoTD w/ Take Me Back to Brazil

Well, I got it. After months of being sold out, I bought with a brush set: the BH Cosmetics Take Me Back to Brazil palette.

There is a lot to like about this palette. It feels sturdy, with a really gorgeous design. On the inside, the 35 pans are on the smaller side, and are comprised the whole spectrum of bright colors. There is also a lot not to like, which I will talk about in my official review of the palette.

But for now, let me show you the eye look that I made with it and another palette:

So, for this look, I set Mac Painterly Paint Pot with Colourpop's Hear Me Out. However, I only placed the matte cream shade on the brow bone and crease.

With a large BH fluffy crease brush, I swept a yellow matte into the crease. The yellow matte was a mix of a couple from this palette.

I then took and orange matte with a smaller crease brush and blended that in.

With the same brush, I also added some pink tones in there.

 I then took the shade Crown from the Queen of Hearts palette from Coloured Raine, and applied that to the lid.

 Eyeliner was my usual, Physician's Formula.

Mascara was Lash Princess by Essence (I go back and forth on this one- currently I like it) and Pixi Lower Lash Mascara, with some Lash Princess on top of that 

We'll see how it wears throughout the day. I'm most interested to see if the colors will just ended up mixing together, especially because I am not technically wearing primer. As of now, I think this is a rather pretty look.

Thanks for reading!

FoTD: Pink Smoke

Hello!

I kind of like the look I came up with today, so I thought I would share. I consider this to be a sort of pink smokey eye.

Before I show the final product, I want to reiterate that I am just a makeup hobbyist, so now, the final product does not look polished. The mascara was not working for me, and we won't even talk about eyeliner.

But, let's get into it! For this look I dipped into three palettes.

1. I started with the Wet 'n Wild Not a Basic Peach palette, with the top transition color to set my eye primer. I find I prefer this for warmer looks because it is slightly darker and warmer than my skin tone.

2. Then, I used the lightest matte peach shade , and blended that into my crease, upwards. It takes some building up. 

3. Then, I used the shade Princess from the Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts palette. For some reason, the lighting makes this look very cool-toned. It's not!

4. Ladyship was then blended into the outer corner, and a bit into the crease.

5. I wet my brush and used Rose Chrome from L'Oreal in the inner portion of my eye. Though I know this is a pigmented shadow, I don't think I enjoy this completely because it is so close to my skin tone it just blends in, rater than standing out.

6. And then, because I find that Ladyship is so pigmented, it leaves skip marks on my skin, instead of really being blended out, so I brought in one of the colors from the Carli Bybel deluxe palette to darken it up, as well as diffuse the color a bit more. 

Final look! 

I know I look crazy here. My hair is up, and those are loose strands 

For blush, I wanted a really warm brown blush, so I used a Pixi Blush I got in an Ipsy bag. I even dusted some on my nose to see what would happen. I also mixed two of the highlighters of the Carli Bybel palette to use on my face. That stuff is intense. 

So, that's it! I'll update with wear time as the day progresses. 

Buy-byeeeee!

Review and Swatches: The Queen of Hearts Eyeshadow Palette

Well, this is long overdue. This palette by Coloured Raine was certainly the palette of the summer, maybe even the past year. It was first limited edition, then became permanent, which was cool of Coloured Raine. I bought this during a flash sale, for $40. Shipping was $6.00. Full price, the palette costs $50.00.

So, let's talk about it, shall we? I have blogged about this palette often. I have featured it in many TMO's, and have compared it to other palettes in my collection, specifically the Tarte Pro to Go, as well as the Modern Renaissance.

I am happy to report that this palette has a unique place in my collection, but I do not think it is worth the full price of $50. Let's talk about this palette. I'll start with pictures:

Over top of the mirror, I've placed the sleeve. I am in the camp that believes the sleeve should have just been the packaging itself, but whatever. The mirror is on the smaller side, but it is covered in the picture. The packaging is sleek hard cardboard, a black outer covering, and gold foil inside. It's really lovely.

Some specs below. Each shadow is 1.5 g.

So the way I have them swatched is the order of the palette, from left to right. The first shade is the bottom one on my arm, Crown, and so on. The metallic/shimmer shades were swatched with my finger, as that is how I apply them to my eye. The mattes were applied with a shader brush. 

1. Crown: An opaque metallic white duochrome, with a pink shift. This is a really impressive shadow because of its opacity and staying powder. I've found that shades like this don't last long, especially in the area of the inner corner, but this one sticks around. It is also really easy to mix this shade with others.

2. Royal Highness: A taupe metallic shade. This has been my favorite so far. But for this and the other shades of the same formulation, glitter glue is necessary for my eye shape, to avoid transfer. This also is a very creamy shadow. 

3. Your Majesty: An orange leaning metallic gold. The only bummer about this is that it inexplicably contains bits of silver glitter. It also requires glitter glue for me, but it is of the same excellent quality as Royal Highness.

4. Princess: A brown leaning dusty rose matte. A beautiful, creamy shade, perfect for me as a transition shade. The mattes are not as soft and delicate as ABH's, which I am grateful for. I can build, and the mattes last a while.

5. Empress: A bright orange, also of excellent quality and pigmentation. 

6. Queen Mother: This one reminds me of Rosette from ABH, but not as red-toned. Queen Mother has a strong brown base, and though it swatches beautiful and applies on the eye just as nicely, I am afraid that it looks like its sealing up in the pan, as Rosette once did. 

7. Heir: I already own this shade, actually. It is called Angel Face, also by Coloured Raine. Actually, Angel Face is softer and a tad more pigmented than Heir. 

8. Royal Perogative: A soft, blendable, mid-toned brown. 

Beginning with the shade on the bottom, we have, 

9. Noblewoman: A creamy, metallic shimmery burgundy leaning red. This is very intense, and I still have to get a handle on it. 

10. Ladyship: If I were to do a finger swatch of this particular shade, you would be disappointed. On the brush, however, it works fine. It lasts a long time. I did even experience some staining. 

11. Duchess: A dark matte brown. 

12. Dethrone: This is a gorgeous shade. It is a bit dark for me, but I love to use it patted on the outer corner- it is very shimmery.

Here is an example of a look I did with this. Also posted on my instagram (@beldamsansmerci). 

For this look, we have Princess in the crease, Ladyship also blended in the crease, and Queen Mother patted on the outer corner. Royal Highness is on the lid.

Overall, I am glad that I also have the Modern Renaissance palette to work with this. On its own, I do feel I am a bit limited with the amount of transition colors. The shimmers are really beautiful, and the palette presents a lot of options. Glitter glue is an absolute must for me, however, because of my particular eyeshape, to prevent transfer of shimmer shades.

When I first got this palette, I was a little intimidated, but once I delved in I found that this palette has a welcome place in my stash, and is perfect for the fall and winter.

I highly recommend it, but only if the colors are up your alley. Personally, I would not pay the full price for it, which is $50. Forty, however, is a good deal.

Let me know if you have this palette. I am always looking for new ways to use this!

My final rating is four and a half stars.

EoTD: Orange and Purple

Today is one of those days when I add to my eye makeup a little over time. When I woke up, I first just put Kitten by Stila all over my eye, as well as Shiro's Fleece-Lined Pillow Fort in my inner corner.  Later, I decided I wanted some color, so I took the Milani Earthly Elements palette (which I technically destashed but it was laying around) and added the brown and orange to my crease and outer corner.

After a while, I took the Queen of Hearts palette and the shade Ladyship, and added that to my look.

This was the final result:

Overall, I think it's a pretty simple look.  Ladyship was regarded as the only negative part of the Queen of Hearts palette, because it swatches terribly, but I don't see any problem with how it works on the eye. Here I blended out with it, as well as packed it over the shade Kitten. 

I'm becoming more interested in color, specifically warm-tones. I've been really loving orange eyeshadow. I have cool-toned skin, so I find that orange really does complement my coloring. 

Currently, I have three orange eyeshadows in my collection, and I have them swatched below for comparison. From left to right, we have the orange from the Milani Earthly Elements palette, Empress from the Queen of Hearts palette, and Realgar from Modern Renaissance. Realgar is pretty dark, and I can even get away with using it as an outer corner shade. 

The Milani shade is the east pigmented, but I still enjoy using it. I wonder if I can depot it from the entire palette.....That will be another story, I guess. 

Anyway, thanks for reading!