LORAC Solid Gold Eyeshadow Palette

Swatches & Review

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a while, I have been loaded with school work, taking care of my family members as well as moving so I have not had much time to blog in a while. Anyway, LORAC has released two new 5-pan eyeshadow palettes that are limited edition and exclusive to Ulta. Since last year's black Friday, LORAC has released a total of five 5-pan eyeshadow palettes, which I like to call the $12 palettes because they were all priced at $12 whether it has been sold at Ulta or Nordstrom Rack. Solid Gold is one of the ones for the Holiday at Ulta and it has a semi-matte bronze packaging and neutral shades inside.

The colors seem like they would complement the other 5-pan palettes in Uptown Allure & Sweet Luxuries because it has neutral shades.

Like I have said in my previous posts about these palettes, I wish they were named.
1) Frosty white: This was smooth and pigmented.
2) Frosty beige: Although this leans a bit more yellow, it still looks very similar to the first shade. This was not as smooth and pigmented as the frosty white.
3) Metallic gold: It was stiff and hard to apply. I had high hopes for this because I feel like this palette was based off of this shade because it's a gold and normally, gold shadows apply super well for me, but this was not. It was hard to swatch with finger and it was hard for me to pick up any color with a brush.
4) Brown with slight sheen: This was also a bit hard to apply, but it was better than the metallic gold.
5) Matte black with gold glitter: This applied like the fourth shade, but the glitter does fall-out and does not stick to the lids so I would definitely recommend tapping your brush to get some glitter out.

Overall, I feel like this was pretty disappointing. I own many LORAC palettes I feel like this was also not up to LORAC's normal eyeshadow quality, like how Downtown Drama was. I was really hoping that it would be like Sweet Luxuries and Uptown Allure because I loved those. I also did not like that LORAC put two similar shades in this palette like they did with Uptown Allure because the Frosty White and Frosty Beige looks very similar to each other. I have heard from some people that theirs applied better than mine did so maybe there are some good ones, but there were inconsistent batches maybe? But this is definitely a skip for me.

This palette retails for $12 and each eyeshadow is about 0.06 oz in size (which pretty much a full-sized Urban Decay eyeshadow). This is limited edition and exclusive to Ulta in-stores and online.

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NARS x Guy Bourdin: One Night Stand Cheek Palette

Swatches & Review

Two years ago, NARS came out with their first Cheek Palette that contains six cheek colors in them. They have always been the first to sell out so when I heard they were making one this year, I knew I had to get it. Unlike the two released in the past, the One Night Stand Cheek Palette has three exclusive limited edition shades. The Guy Bourdin One Night Stand palette is exclusively sold at Sephora for the Holiday season.

The box that this palette comes in.

The palette taken in natural daylight.

The palette taken indoor with light.

The six shades in this palette are:
Devotee, Laguna, Mistinguette, Deep Throat, Orgasm, and Goulue.

Devotee: Frosty highlighter with a slight pink sheen. Devotee is very pigmented and a little goes a long way. This is a nice highlighter to pair with matte shades.

Laguna: Bronzer with golden shimmer. In previous palette sets, Laguna applied patchy for me, however, this barely even showed up on me at all! This was stiff and a bit hard to apply. I used many layers before it actually showed up a bit. In my swatch, it does not look like anything is there, but it is.

Mistinguette is described as a bright pink, but on me, it is more like a pale light pink. This is the only matte shade in the palette and this was quite powdery and chalky for me when swatched. When applied with a blush brush, it is not as powdery, but it definitely emphasized the dry patches on my cheeks.

Deep Throat: Sheer peach with slight golden shimmer. If you compare this to Orgasm, you can definitely see that Deep Throat is more peachy, while Orgasm is more pink. I feel that the individual blush of Deep Throat is more pigmented and smooth compared to what is offered in this palette. However, it is still a nice subtle blush for a natural look.

Orgasm: Peachy-pink with golden shimmer. The shimmer in Orgasm is more noticeable than in Deep Throat. This also was not as pigmented and smooth when compared to the individual blush and the other Orgasms I own from other palettes, but the shade is buildable.

Goulue: Medium pink with subtle golden shimmer. This was the most pigmented shade in the whole palette. This was buttery smooth and a light-hand is definitely needed with this if you do not want to overdo it. This is my favorite shade in the palette.

Overall, I feel like this palette is a good value if you do not already have the shades that are permanent in here (Laguna, Deep Throat & Orgasm. NARS definitely needs to stop putting those shades in everything). Although they did not perform as well as they do individually, Deep Throat and Orgasm are build-able to achieve the color that is in the individual ones. Laguna just did not work for me at all, and Mistinguette is a bit too light for my liking, but I did really like Devotee, and Goulue, which are exclusive to this palette. Each blush contains 0.14 oz of product, while each blush sold individually contains 0.16 oz of product, so it is almost full-sized, and buying it for those two almost justifies the price (if you do not mind another Deep Throat, Orgasm or Laguna).

The One Night Stand palette retails for $65 and is exclusive to Sephora (Online & In-Stores although it is listed as "online only" on their website, it is not).

What do you think about this cheek palette? Would you buy it for the exclusive shades?

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Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm & Lacquer Balms;Maybelline Gilded in Gold

Best Boyfriend EVER:

Since NouveauCheap has mentioned that these had landed, I HAD to look for them. Although I spent all weekend hunting, they were nowhere to be found. When it's the weekdays, I have no car, so I have no access to stalk products & normally by the time it's weekend, the things I want are sold out. Well, my boyfriend is the sweetest ever! Knowing that I have been looking for these & after showing him pictures while I was hunting over the weekend, he ended up going to look for them for me himself so I would not miss out on them. This morning when he told me they had it in & I was SO excited!

Here's some display pictures:

Revlon's new Lacquer Balms & Matte Balms. My boyfriend had a full display, but he took the picture after he took the ones that he was going to buy for me, which is why it's not full, but he did good! I like how half the display itself is glossy, and the other half is matte!

The next collection he found that I was looking for was Maybelline's Holiday Gilded in Gold collection. Normally, I do not use their Color Tattoos, but the fact that the ones in this display are matte and limited edition, I just had to have them, so he picked all three up for me as well.

The few that he purchased for me:

A few of both the Revlon Lacquer Balms in Vivacious, Provacateur & Enticing, Revlon Matte Balms in Standout, Shameless, Sultry & Showly, as well as the three color Tattoos in Matte Brown, Just Beige, and Nude Pink.

One thing I would like to note is that 6 of the 10 matte Revlon Matte Balm shades only have one for each display, such as Shameless (the purple) & Standout (deep red), so they may be harder to find. I was lucky enough to have my boyfriend be able to go look for these everyday & for them to put them up when he was there.

I cannot wait until I get to see him later on this week so that I can see these in person! & I will definitely try them out when I have the time to if I am not loaded up with homework this weekend so I can have swatches & review up for you guys! :) Like I have mentioned before, I appreciate my boyfriend SO much and for him to understand and be so helpful with this makeup obsession of mine is amazing! I seriously do not know what I would do without him because he seriously is the best I have ever had.

Do you think you will be picking up some of these new Holiday Collection items?

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Tarte Cosmetics Pure Delights 8-Piece LipSurgence Set

Swatches & Review

Another set I purchased from Tarte Cosmetics Holiday 2013 Tarte of Giving collection is their Pure Delights LipSurgence lip set. The past two years, Tarte has released LipSurgence sets that are full-sized, but this year, they made a set with eight deluxe-sized LipSurgence's. I was hoping for one that was all matte, but since half of this set is with their matte formula, I had to get it.

The four matte shades are: Glee, Generous, Destined & Cheerful.

Generous: Orange-ish, neutral. On their website, Generous is described as a pink-nude, but to me, it seems a bit more orange when swatched. I was surprised how wearable this nude was because nude lip colors normally wash me out.
Glee: Watermelon, coral-pink. This was very pigmented & glided on smoothly.
Destined: Raspberry pink. This was also very pigmented & glided on smoothly.
Cheerful: This is a coral shade, but it also kind of leans almost bubblegum pink on me. Out of all the matte shades, this shade seemed to show up dry spots on my lips more than the other three.

The four shades of their regular lip tint formula are: Enamored, Grateful, Believe & Lovely.

Lovely: Mauve-pink. It applied smooth & even on the lips.
Enamored: Cool toned red. After applying, I felt like this looks kind of uneven on the lips compared to the others I have tried. However, this was the most pigmented of the bunch, but was still a bit see through on the lips because it is more of a tint to the lips than to cover it up.
Grateful: Nude. Like Generous from the matte shades, I felt like this was more of a orange-nude, which made it wearable for me. This was one of the least pigmented ones in the set and seems more like a MLBB shade.
Believe: This is a medium pink & like Lovely, it applied smooth & even on the lips.

Comparison:

Compared to a full-sized LipSurgence, these deluxe-sized ones look a bit more than half of a full-sized. A full-sized contains 0.10 oz of product & the ones in the Pure Delights set contains 0.06 oz each.

Overall, I like this set more than I thought I would. When I first received it, I initially thought "Wow, these are SO small," but after comparing them to full-sized ones, I guess it really isn't THAT small. I really like the matte formula of LipSurgence's because they are not very drying & they pack a bunch of pigment as well. I feel like it would be faster to use up the regular formula lip tints because they use more products because the product itself feels very soft, while the mattes have a bit of a harder feel on the product itself. These have a slight peppermint scent to it & it feels kind of cool once applied to the lips, but the scent fades away after a while of wearing it. I believe the colors in this set are exclusive so once it's gone, it's gone. These are so cute, they would definitely make great stocking stuffers! The Pure Delights LipSurgence set retails for $34 and can be purchased from Sephora (in-store & online), Ulta (in-store mid October & online now) & tartecosmetics.com.

What do you think about this LipSurgence set? Do you like the matte LipSurgence formula?

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Tarte Cosmetics Leave Her Blushing Blush Set

Swatches & Review

Every year, Tarte Cosmetics comes out with holiday sets with amazing values to them so I was definitely looking forward to how the sets offered are for this year. When it was first released on Sephora, I was disappointed that they did not have individual deluxe-size blushes like last year's Fantastic Foursome (link). To my surprise, they actually released a set of three mini-blushes and a blush brush on their website a few days later. Tarte Cosmetics Leave Her Blushing set seems to be exclusive to tartecosmetics.com & has three blushes and one blush brush included.

Looking at the pan, the blushes look very bright.

The three blushes are Honored, Imagined & Treasured. Each of these blushes has 0.053 oz of product, which is about 1/4 of a full-sized blush from Tarte.

Taken with a light over them, you can see that the blushes look slightly shimmery. Treasured is the one with most shimmer visible under light.

Honored: To me, this looks like a neutral rose pink, which is pretty much how Tarte described it when they said it is a nude rose. This has a slight silvery sheen to it, but it was not too noticeable. This was smooth and pigmented.

Imagined: Tarte describes this as a candy pink shade. In the pan, this looks like it would be super bright and pigmented, but when swatched, it ended up being a light-lavender pink. I was actually very surprised because it looked like it would be very intense when swatched. Imagined was very stiff and not very pigmented. With a finger swatch, it was hard to pick up the product on my finger and with a brush, it was barely able to pick up any product at all. This was very chalky once applied & even when I tried on my cheeks, it just looked very dry-chalky looking. This also has a slight silver sheen, but I was very disappointed this this shade.

Treasured: Tarte describes this as a melon, but it is more of a apricot-pink to me, so goldish-pink. I was not able to capture the golden sheen well on camera, but this was very NARS Orgasm-like. It is like a subtle pink with a strong golden sheen to it, but it applied very smooth, I like it more than NARS Orgasm. This is not the most unique shade, but it is nice if you do not already have NARS Orgasm or a bunch of similar shades close to it.

Overall, I feel like this set is not something that is a "must have" like last years set. Last year, the blushes has 0.10 oz of product and this year, it is half of that size, which makes it come out to $6.50 per blush this year since a full-size retails for $26. This years set also has colors that seem like it can easily be duped, or it would be easy to find colors very similar to what this set has to offer. I did not picture the brush, but after using it, I actually like it. It is soft and it blends out blushes nicely. I tried the blush on other products such as theBalm's Instain blushes and since it was soft, it made it look very natural looking since theBalm's blushes tend to easily give you clown cheeks. Altogether, the blushes come out to be $19.50 & the brush is $28, which makes the total value of this set at $47.50, which is not an "amazing" deal since it's $13.50 less, but if you want this set for the new & exclusive shades, then this would probably be more of a collector's item. This set retails for $34 and can be purchased on tartecosmetics.com (not affiliated).

What do you think about Holiday sets? Have you indulged in any Holiday sets yet, or are you waiting until later on in the season since it is only a few days into fall?

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Urban Decay Vice 2 Palette

Preview:

For a few weeks now, I have seen some pictures about the Vice 2 palette and I have been super excited about it because I really like that the last Vice Palette was not as bulky as the previous Book of Shadows palettes. This Holiday, Urban Decay is coming back with Vice 2, which is the second year of them making Vice! The outside of the palette is kind of like a tie-dye look compared to a solid color from the first version. I found a few pictures on instagram, but these two were the best that shows the inside of the palette.

Credits to the Instagram of SephoraMX (Sephora Mexico) & fer_rosas29

From the looks of it, some of the shades seem to be new shades because of the shade names that I was able to make out from the pictures.

The few shade names I was able to get from this are:
Coal, X-Rated, Poison, Derailed, Rewind, Ambush, Betrayal, Stash, Voodoo, Habit, Strike, Dope, Radar, Prank, Smokeout, Toxic & Damaged.

It also seems that this palette, like the Vice Palette does not have much matte shades, which is a bummer because Urban Decay has had amazing matte shades that they have discontinued & it seems like half the shades are also neutral, which is like almost all their palettes now. I would love more color & mattes (maybe Vice 3? I will not give up hope!), but this looks nice enough to grab too! I heard the release for this is not until November, but the date can always change since it is not official yet & for the last few years, their Holiday sets are usually offered around mid to late September.

I have also heard that this Holiday, they may be coming back with their old beloved face palettes. Here's a few images of the face palettes Urban Decay has offered in 2010:

Image from makeupandbeautyblog.com

& the ones from 2004:

Image from londonbeautyreview.com


So far, what do you think about the Vice 2? Does it look pretty enough for you to indulge? & what do you think the return of the face palettes would be? :)

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