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 :)

Blog Update!

So I bought a $6.00 lens attachment for my iphone pics. Already, I can see this is definitely working out for the better, if not for some slight issues. It's a clip on lens, so I can't do flash at the same time, so I have to be a little more thoughtful about lighting. Also, depending on how I position my camera, the picture can become a little warped and rounded....All in all I am glad I can take sort of macro shots of products and swatches. At this point, I am not going to invest in a high-grade camera or anything like that, so I'll make do for now. So, if you see suddenly an influx of slightly higher quality pictures (without flash) on the blog, now you know why that is the case.

Pixi x Chloe Morello Lip Icing Cake: Review and (Updated) Swatches

Today I found a product that blew me away. We are talking about a collaboration between Pixi and the beautuber Chloe Morello, a moisturizing lip products that contains glimmer and shimmer.

I have been on the hunt for lipglosses that rival more upscale brands, as well as indie brands, whose glosses contain larger, more complex particles of shimmer. For the drugstore, the most common shimmer gloss seems to be frost, or does not translate well on the lips. However, the lip icing absolutely does, and it stands apart from any gloss that I have ever tried.

According to the packaging, the product can be worn on its own, or on top of lip products. It is housed in a solid clear plastic container with the signature Pixi-green cap. The applicator is a flat doe-foot wand. You get 3.5 g of product for $14.


In the container, the product looks super interesting and complex, a reflective coppery/yellow gold/rose combination, with tons of shimmer. The gloss itself is sheer with a golden tint to it.



On the lips,  the look is a tad more subtle, but the end result is really pretty, and you do get lots of visible shimmer, which ranges from gold, pink, and even a bit of green.


There is nothing gritty about the way the product feels on the lips. For me, its consistency lies somewhere between a lip oil and a gloss. You do get a glossy finish, but the product is very moisturizing. It also lasts on the lips a good amount for a lip gloss- I would say 2-3 hours.

The scent of rosehip is present when I open the gloss, but it disappears when the gloss is applied. There is no "flavor" to the product at all, which I appreciate.

Ingredients:

 Swatches on the back of my hand with one swipe of the applicator (click for full size):

There is something really thoughtful about the way this product was designed, and I think this was an admirable collaboration. The gloss was everything I was looking for: long-wearing, moisturizing, shimmery, non-sticky, and not gritty. I think lipgloss fans will appreciate this product very much, and it has my full recommendation.