Naked 2 Dual Ended Brush vs UD Regular Brushes

Urban Decay Brush Review

Palette brush on the left, regular brush on right.

Oops, excuse the dirtiness of the brush :x


Today, I will be reviewing the brush that came with Urban Decay's Naked 2 Palette. I ordered this palette the day it released on urbandecay.com and it sold out within 2 to 3 hours! It is now in stock at sephora.com & since it is $50, you qualify for free shipping. When I first learned that Urban Decay was including a dual-ended brush in their palette, I was so excited because I love Urban Decay's Shadow and Crease brush and to have both in one sounded amazing! Since receiving the palette, I have not used the brushes yet & I decided to compare them both today. What I noticed with the brush included in the Naked 2 palette was not up to their usual Urban Decay brush quality. As you can see from the pictures, the shadow brush was a bit smaller, and the crease brush was a bit bigger than their regular ones that they sell individually. I usually don't look forward to brushes that comes in palettes, but heck, it was supposed to be a Good Karma brush and I paid $50 for the palette & I'm pretty sure the brush was a factor in the pricing considering they raised the price of the Naked Original due to adding the brush instead of the dual-liner. When I tested out the brush in the Naked 2, the crease side of the brush was really scratchy, which was a total disappointment and the shadow side of the brush didn't pick up the product as well as the regular ones did. Overall, I wish they did better on the brush because it just doesn't live up to the brush quality they normally have, but I guess I shouldn't have that high of a hope for it because it was a brush included in a palette. On top of that, my palette came with scratches on the back of it & they were pretty sharp. I called Urban Decay about it and they responded telling me there's nothing they could do about it since it was sold out unless I just want to give it up and return it back to them with the risk of them selling out again next time before I can re-buy. I thought it was such a hassle so I decided to just file it down with a nail file, but that shouldn't even be something that I had to deal with, again, considering the price of the palette. What do you guys think of the brush, and the palette overall? Own it? Love it?

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EcoTools Kabuki Set

I recently won this from EcoTools Tools you Like Tuesdays from their Facebook page. This was the first time I won anything so I was pretty excited! I love EcoTools and I've been dying to get my hands on this set so I'm happy I was able to have the chance to win it! This is a limited edition set & it sells at my local Target for $14.99. I have not opened this yet, but after I have, I will post more pictures up & reviews about this! They have also included a cosmetic bag & I think it would be perfect for storing some of my brushes! Thank you, EcoTools! :) What do you guys think about EcoTools? Use it? Love it?

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Hey guys! I hope you guys have been having a great holiday! I've been meaning to update, but I haven't had my laptop lately because it was being all wonky so I'm stuck with my brothers laptop that I can't plug anything to because his plugs on his laptop just does not work! :( I'll be getting my laptop back this week so I will be able to post up on reviews on some nail polishes I have tested out :) Have a great New Years! have fun, stay warm & most importantly, stay safe! :)

- Lisa

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Holiday Giveaway! - Closed

So Christmas is around the corner & the New Year is also coming by so I decided that I will do a giveaway since I found two gorgeous nail polishes! The prizes are OPI DS Desire & China Glaze's TTYL, so they are both holographic :) Just enter using rafflecopter.

Rules:
It is mandatory to follow me, but commenting & letting the word out about this giveaway is optional. You can comment once, if you comment more than once, you will be disqualified. However, you can tweet or blog about this giveaway once a day & include a link to your blog or tweet.

This giveaway will end January 1st (if it reaches up to at least 25 entries) & the winner will be notified via e-mail. This giveaway is open to US residents only (sorry! I will do an international giveaway after I figure out all this shipping thing) 18 & above. If you are under 18, & you are chosen, please provide me with your parents consent since you will have to give me your mailing address.

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China Glaze; Sweet Cream

Swatches and Review




This is China Glaze's Sweet Cream. Sweet Cream is a berry pink color. When I bought this polish, I thought it would be more of a dusty pink, but I am totally not complaining because this color was actually one of the colors that got me to love more pink nail polishes! Every time I wear Sweet Cream, I always crave for some cranberry juice (weird, isn't it?)
Application for this was smooth. It wasn't too thick and it wasn't too thin, the consistency was just right. I put on three coats, but this could have easily gotten away with two coats, if the second coat was a bit thick. If you love pinks, I think this is a must-have! :)

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Essie; Mint Candy Apple

Swatches and Review



Essie's Mint Candy Apple is from their 2009 Winter Collection. This is a minty green color, given it is called Mint Candy Apple. This is similar to Mint Sorbet(?) from Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear and it gives a mintier green look when it is compared to China Glaze's Re-Fresh Mint. This is my first time wearing Mint Candy Apple on my full nail and I honestly hated the application. The first two coats were so streaky & maybe it is just me, but I realized a lot of mint green nail polishes are really streaky. I am wearing three coats in the pictures, and it does not look as streaky since I made the third layer very thick so it will even itself out(I usually like using a thick 3rd coat when polishes are streaky). This is a gorgeous color, but I think it will look better on someone with a lighter skin tone than mine.

Overall, I think Essie has some better polishes than this in terms of application. This is a bit similar to one of their newer colors from their 2011 Summer Collection, Absolutely Shore, but Absolutely is a tad lighter and less bright. Although I don't think this color is the best fit for me wearing it on my full nails, I always use Mint Candy Apple as french tips and it is not bad at all! What do you guys think? Own it? Love it?

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Urban Decay; 24/7 Shadow Pencil Stash

Swatches and Review

Delinquent, Rehab, Juju, Sin & Clash

Clash, Sin, Rehab, Juju & Clash


I finally got my Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide on shadow pencil stash! I was so excited to try these because I love their 24/7 glide on liners and the fact that when I first started with makeup, I used shadow pencils the most(I used Avon brand though)! For my swatches, I have tried to blend out three of the colors to see how they looked(I actually swatched these on my arms at Sephora). I blended out Clash, Sin & Delinquent, although Sin was a bit blended in with the blue (because I didn't wipe the brush after, oops!).

Clash: is a sparkly bright blue color. When it is blended out, it looks a bit sheer, but it spreads out the glitter a lot more than just wearing it by itself.

Sin: Sin isn't my favorite color in their pressed powder shadows, but with this, it looks so amazing! It is a pinkish champagne color with a frosty finish.

Rehab: is a dark espresso-like brown. This color looks like it will look nice when it is blended out for a smokey effect.

Juju: is a light frosty taupe. It is a bit similar to Rehab, but it is like a lighter version which is very nice.

Delinquent:: Okay, so purple is usually not one of my favorite colors, but this purple blended out looks like it will be an amazing smokey shade. If I were to pair up two shadow pencils together, I would put both Sin and Delinquent together, or Juju and Delinquent. It is sparkly, just like how Clash is and since it's in a buttery pencil form, the glitter pretty much sticks onto your eyelids! (or I have not experienced any fall out while testing these out)

Overall, I love how pigmented and buttery these shadow pencils are, but you have to remember to always put to cap back on & make sure it is tight or these pencils will dry out, fast. The shadows I did blend out, I blended the shadows out with Urban Decay's brush that was made specifically for these shadow pencils, which retails for $16 on Urban Decay's site. I like how you can also wear these shadows without having to blend them out, but since they are so smooth and buttery, it takes a while for it to dry, but not too long! I bought this set for $34 from Sephora which is an incredible deal considering that you get five almost fill sized pencils when one itself costs $20. I wish that there was an extra color in this set, but the neutral colors are pretty amazing itself, so I can't complain. If you wanted to try out some of these pencils, these are definitely worth trying. It is also a good option if you are in a rush & just want to fix up your eyes quickly! What do you guys think? Own it? Love it?

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Essie; Going Incognito

Swatches and Review


With Flash



So I was deciding on what nail polish I should wear today (since it's Thursday & I come home on Thursdays to my nail polish stash) & I decided to wear this! I originally wanted to wear Warm and Fozzie, but I really wanted to wear it closer to Christmas, so Going Incognito it is!

Going Incognito was actually a Winter collection from Essie last year, and it is a gorgeous forest green color with a creme finish. It is not too dark, but it is dark enough to be considered vampy. I love that it matches my forest green hoodie from American Apparel! Haha. Anyway, the application on this was great. This could have passed with two coats, but I still put on three coats because I am used to applying three coats of nail polish. Usually, I wish that Essie brushes were wider, but lately, I have been growing onto the smaller brush because it flexes out wide, which covers my nails well & covers the hard to get spots easily, which I find that I have a hard time with, with OPI brushes sometimes. The polish itself was not thin, nor thick, it was just the perfect consistency which is a total plus for me. This kind of gets me more into the holiday spirit! :) What do you guys think? Own it? love it? :)

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China Glaze Magnetix

Preview Picture


I have posted this on MUT, & so I'm also going to post this here. With all the magnetic polishes coming out, China Glaze is finally going to come out with one too! I was waiting for either China Glaze or OPI to come out with their own versions since Nails Inc. & Layla's magnetic polish didn't seem to interest me much. To my surprise, this collection of China Glaze's is going to come with their magnets separately, which means it will not be on the cap of the bottle. Also, the magnets are supposed to form a different shape depending on which set of magnets you use! Doesn't it sound amazing?! It is said that this will be released in the Netherlands in March of 2012, so I have no information of when it is going to be released in other parts of the world.

So far, I have heard that the colors names will be You Move On, Cling On, Pull Me Close, Instant Chemistry, Drawn To You, Attraction. It makes me think all lovey dovey, but then again, they are magnets, right? They're supposed to attract & draw into you with the instant chemistry that you would just want to cling onto.

Seems like China Glaze is releasing a lot next year, since I have heard about the upcoming ones such as Prismatic, The Hunger Games, ElectroPop Brights & Lights, & another set of new glitter crackles. What do you think of this Magnetix collection? & are there any others you're looking forward to from China Glaze? :)

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theBalm; Balmbini Vol. 2

Swatches and Review
Balmbini Volume 2 Eye Shadows

Jinxy Jasmyne, Promiscuous Pearl, Manic Maribel, Open to Offers Olwen & Lavish Latoya


Comparison: Balmbini Vol 2 on top row, theBalm's Cast your Shadow bottom row
Promiscuous Pearl/HIII-YAAA!, Manic Maribel/Meep Meep, Open to Offers Olwen/Sensational & Lavish Latoya/Kissy Kissy.
Can you see the similarities?

Oh & my Open to Offers Olwen's pan is overfilled. I guess it's good that there's "more product" (by a few grams) BUT, I get really irritated when my palette was not filled at just the right amount because it kind of damaged the top of the packaging & had it mushed with blue over it :(


This is theBalm's Balmbini Volume 2. This palette contains five eye shadows, & four of them can double as an eyeliner, while the other eye shadow is also a highlight, as well as one lip/cheek creme & one lip gloss.

Here are the reviews from the Balmbini Vol. 2:
Promiscuous Pearl: This is an eye shadow that is also a highlighting shade. I found this shade to be chalky and stiff because my brushes and applicators was not picking up a lot of this product. It is sheer, so for my swatches, I swiped it on with my applicator three times. This is similar to the Mary-Lou Manizer and the HIII-YAAA! from their Muppets Cast your Shadow palette which I prefer them both over Promiscuous Pearl.

Jinxy Jasmyne: Okay, so I bought this palette just because I was excited about this shade, and although this shade IS very pigmented, there is a lot of fall out that comes with it. This is a really matte black, but it is so soft that my tapping my brush into it lightly kind of dug a small hole into it! When I first opened this, there was already a tiny hole and I didn't mind since most of the time when I buy some eye shadows, there are small holes in it & it covers up with a swipe of a brush, but the brush basically well.. made the hole bigger. :( I love the outcome of this shade, it is buttery and pigmented, but it is not worth the mess this comes with. I tried almost everything to prevent the fallout, but it still did not work. If you are interested in a deep black and can deal with the fallout issues from the buttery softness of it, I think this is worth it.

Manic Maribel: This is a copper color. It is super pigmented & nice. However, this color is easily dupe-able and very similar to Meep Meep from the Muppets Cast your Shadows palette.

Open to offers Olwen: This is a shade that was also in Shady Lady Vol. 3. It is a gorgeous blue shade, but it is comparable Sensational from the Cast your Shadow palette. However, Open to offers Olwen is a tad lighter than Sensational. If you don't already own a color like this or similar to this, this is a good color to have in your makeup stash as well :)

Lavish Latoya: This is a purple with a silvery sheen to it. It is comparable to Kissy Kissy from the Muppets Cast your Shadows palette.

Overall, I think this is a good palette for those who do not own too much of theBalm products because all the colors are easily dupe-able within theBalm, and even some shades you may probably find similar to in other brands such as Urban Decay and Too Faced. This palette costs $28 and you can get it from theBalm's website. It is a good deal for the amount of product that you get, but it's not worth it if you already have colors very similar to this. Also, when you compare my pictures from Balmbini Vol 1 and this one, I would choose Balmbini Vol 1 over this because Vol 1 actually focuses more on this palette as a face palette, than a eye shadow palette. I was excited about this palette when I first heard about it, but when I learned that it does not include powder blushes, it was a huge let down. With that said, I don't think I will be keeping this palette because the colors are really similar to their Muppets palette and the only color I was actually looking forward to was a pain to deal with especially when it stained my arms & eyes for a whole day! :(

* all of these eye-shadows were swatched over Urban Decay's primer potion.
The pictures are mine.

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Spotted at TJ Maxx: Essie

I went to TJ Maxx sometime last week and I spotted 4 Essie sets from their older collections: Braziliant 2011, Resort 2011, Spring Collection & Wedding 2011. They each contain 4 mini Essie Nail Polishes, which is super cute, but I didn't buy any because I already have them in their full size. They sell for $9.99 at TJ Maxx, not bad, right? :)

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Shine of the Times Matte & Glossy

Here is a comparison picture of Essie's Shine of the Times in Matte (Topped with Essie's Matte About You) and Glossy. :)

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Essie; Shine of the Times

Swatches and ReviewLooks orange-ish here, doesn't it?

It's a galaxy on my nails! :D



Can you spot some green?

Yesterday, my boyfriend bought me Essie's Shine of the Times top coat from the Luxeffects collection and I couldn't help but just take of last week nail polish & try it on! Since I'm still going through my untried polishes, I went to find one of the darker ones & I ended up wearing Orly's La Playa, which is a deep dark navy blue color.

Essie's Shine of the Times is gorgeous on La Playa! I actually tried it on Designer... De Better! but it didn't show up at all. It just made the polish look like there were more goldish bronze flecks in there. The application of Orly's La Playa was great, it only required two coats for opacity & I just left it at two coats since I was going to use Shine of the Times over it anyway. Shine of the Times is a thick top coat so it only required one coat for the effects to show on it. Although it was thick, it applied nicely and evenly so there was no goopey-ness left on the nail afterward.
The most dominant color from the topcoat is orange er.. red-orange and there is a green duochrome to it, which I am amazed by (I am easily amazed) & from time to time, you can see a hint of purple. I love it! With La Playa, it looks like a blue stone that has been underwater for years, doesn't it? Haha :) Own it? Love it?

*Only one coat of Essie's Shine of the Times have been used in the photos & the photos are mine.

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