Color Club: Over The Moon

Swatches & Review

Color Club's Over The Moon is part of their 2013 release of Halo Hues. For Fall 2012, they released six soft Halo Hues shades. For Spring 2013, the Halo Hues have colors that are more brighter than the first release. I decided on getting the Halo Hues for a while now & since the 2013 ones were released early, I decided to buy the whole set.

Over The Moon is a medium blue with a stone holographic finish.
For my swatches, I tried Over The Moon over bare nails, regular clear base coat & Nfu-Oh's Aqua Base.
With the first coat, you can see it applied best with Aqua Base underneath the nail polish. Without any base also applied nicely, but the holographic effect is not as strong with one coat compared to it with the Aqua Base. With clear base coat, there was dragging and bald spots from the nail polish.
With two coats, the ones painted over the Aqua Base & bare nails applied smoothly. The one with a clear base underneath also had some dragging.

With three coats, they all look the same. These are pictured without any top coat. You can see the one used with the clear base coat has a tiny bald spot on it. The texture with that one also does not feel as smooth as when I used the nail polish over the Aqua Base & bare nails.
These are pictured with top coat. When I first applied the top coat, the holographic finish was kind of dull, but after it fully-dried, the holographic effect is still strong like before putting on the top coat. You can tell that the holographic finish of this is strong since you can see it while indoor, but outdoors is definitely when it is best!
Using thin layers, these dry fast. Like other holographic finish nail polishes, these will show your nail lines & all imperfections on the nails without any base on it, so using an Aqua Base would be good. If you do not have any Aqua Base, you can definitely paint it over bare nails, but using a top coat on top of the nail polish would definitely help with streaks of your nail (if you have a lot). I would not recommend using these on top of a regular clear base coat because it drags & creates bald spots on the nail.

Overall, I really like this nail polish. This is the first Halo Hue that I have tried from Color Club and I am in love! I can not wait to try the others. At first, I thought this would remind me of one of my Layla Holographic in color, but after three coats it came out being more of a medium-blue than a light-blue. The holographic finish on this is strong & it does not disappoint. These retail for $10 each, but I purchased mine as a set on enospring.com for $40, which is not bad at all considering it comes out to about $6.70 each.

What do you think about Color Club's Halo Hues? Do you own any? What is your favorite brand for holographic finish nail polishes?

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Stila: In The Know

Swatches & Review

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend gave me Stila's In The Know palette as a gift. Since I have been using matte eyeshadows a lot lately, this was perfect since this palette has all matte finish shades.

This is packaged in cardboard with a magnetic closure.

There is a quote on the top of the mirror. I find it true, haha!

There is 10 eyeshadows in the palettes & they are all matte!

The top row has more lighter shades:
Air: Matte cream
Wind: Matte beige (This looks kind of similar to Air on me)
Desert: Peachy matte
Clay: Matte light-brown
Earth: Matte chocolate brown

The bottom row has darker colors & it complements the top row nicely:
Driftwood: Matte dark brown
Fire: Matte red-orange
Rain: Matte taupe
Smoke: Matte light grey
Ebony: Matte black

Out of all ten shades, I found that nine of the shades were very smooth and pigmented. The only one I had problems with was Ebony, which is the matte black. It was kind of rough and did not apply smoothly like the other ones did. The standout shade for me is definitely Fire. Fire is a gorgeous red-orange shade and it really stands out from all the other colors in the palette, which is more on the neutral side. Compared to Urban Decay's NAKED Basics, I feel like the top row of In The Know is similar (minus the last color). Stila's In The Know was released before the Naked Basics, so if you have this already, you probably don't need the Naked Basics.

This is the first time for me to try Stila eyeshadows and I really like these. They are smooth and pigmented. Some had a bit of fall-out, but it was not much. I like how it is all matte, which is what a lot of people are also interested in. This retails for $39 and is sold at Sephora (In-store & Online) & Ulta.

What do you think about Stila products? Which is your favorite?

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Maybelline Color Sensational Vivids: Brazen Berry

Swatches & Review

Yesterday, I reviewed Hot Plum from Maybelline's new Color Sensational Vivids LipColor line. Today, I will be reviewing Brazen Berry, which is the second shade that I purchased from the collection.

Looking at the lipstick. Brazen Berry looks like a bright purple.

There were a bit of air bubbles on the Brazen Berry lipstick. I wonder if it is normal because when I was buying it, I opened one before this & that had two HUGE air bubbles on it. It looked like a mice took two small nibbles off the lipstick, which was kind of weird.

For the first lip picture, I took it in direct sunlight. The other two were taken indoor, with the middle one being in front of the window.

Looking at the lipstick from the tube, it definitely looks a bit more purple, but when applied to the lips, it is more of a pink-purple. When compared to Hot Plum (from my last review), Brazen Berry looks a lot cooler than it. In direct sunlight, it looks more like a lavender-pink, but while indoors, it looks more purple than it does pink, so like Hot Plum, I guess it depends on where you are wearing the lipstick because the shades look quite different. For me, Brazen Berry was a lot more moisturizing for me than Hot Plum was.

Overall, I like how pigmented these are. For my swatches I used one layer & it was already enough. After swatching it on my arm, it left a stain. The swatch I did for Hot Plum yesterday is still stained on my arms (after THREE showers). However, the stain on the lips is very subtle, so it is easier to remove with makeup/lipstick remover. The downside was that I imagined this to be more purple, but this does not look bad either since it actually reminds me of a neon purple. This also had an orange cap (all of the Vivids do), which I am not too big on, and like Hot Plum, I hate that there is no safety seal at all! Other than that, I am thinking about picking up a few more shades since I only bought these two & I really like them a lot.

I purchased mine at Target for $5.21 (regularly $5.49). Walmart has them for $5.49 and Ulta, CVS, & Rite Aid has them for $7.49 - $9.99.

What do you think about Brazen Berry? What Maybelline lipstick would you recommend me (from any Maybelline lipstick line)?

Yes, I really like it ♥ haha!

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Maybelline Color Sensational Vivids: Hot Plum

Swatches & Review

One of the newest lip collections out for Spring is Maybelline's Color Sensational Vivids LipColor. Their line of Vivids consists of 10 super-saturated shades & they are bright!

The Vivids lip line is packaged with a bright orange tube.

The lipstick in the picture looks bright already, doesn't it?

In some angles, it looks more purple than it does pink.

For the first lip picture, I took it in direct sunlight. The other two were taken indoor, with the middle one being in front of the window.

When it is outdoor, you can see that it is more of a fuchsia-like pink, but indoors, there is a slight sheen of purple. When swatched on arm, it is definitely a bright pink. There is a sheen to these for the finish. They feel a bit moisturizing in the first hour, but after a while, they felt drying on my lips so I think moisturizing your lips about an hour before applying the product would be better.
Overall, I am really impressed with Maybelline's Vivids line. I have never actually tried Maybelline lipsticks, so trying Hot Plum as my first color was not bad at all. Although the shade name has "plum" in it, it was not really plummy, which was a bit disappointing for me. There is a slight sweet scent to the lipstick, but nothing too overbearing. However, the lipstick itself was very pigmented. Though it was not the color I thought it would be, the pigmentation of this was amazing! For my swatches (lip & arm), I only used one layer of lipstick & it was already bright.

One thing I do hate about these were the packaging. It was packaged in a orange tube. I would have liked it better if the color of the tube matched with the shade (it would look very fun too), but another thing that I was not okay with more was the fact that they were not sealed! A lot of drugstore lipsticks are not sealed with shrink-wrap, but even Revlon has a sticker to make it harder for a person to open it in the store (though people still rip off the sticker to try), these had NOTHING! No shrink-wrap, no sticker to prevent someone from opening it. I has to go through three of these at my Target to find one that was untouched. I find it interesting that even Wet n' Wild had shrink-wraps for their $1 lipsticks and Maybelline could not even put a sticker on for a lipstick that costs way ore than WnW? That was one of the main negatives from this.

For drugstore lipsticks, they are normally more on the neutral and darker side, so seeing bright shades at an affordable price is definitely a plus in my book. I have been trying shades out of my comfort zone lately so these came at the perfect time. I purchased mine at Target for $5.21 (regularly $5.49), which is a good price for these lipsticks. Walmart has them for $5.49 and Ulta, CVS, & Rite Aid has them for $7.49 - $9.99.

What do you think about these lipsticks? Have you tried anything from Maybelline's Color Sensational Vivids line? Which is your favorite?

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