So for my next installment of "Why Isn't Anyone Talking About This?" it's: J Cat Beauty Shimmery Powder. I don't hear a lot about J Cat Beauty that much. I seen where Ulta started carrying it, so I wanted to try some things and I stumbled across their pigments or Shimmery Powders. These are $3.95 and they are amazing. I only got 3. I think there is 6.
I got shades Sienna, Auburn Red, and Lavender Pink. I use all pretty much all my pigments with a damp brush for a more intense effect. I prefer to use Mehron Mixing Liquid, which should be a whole post on it's own. Seriously if you don't have Mehron Mixing Liquid, get it. It changes the game so much. Anywho, you can use MAC Fix + or basically anytype of liquid to dampen your brush. Setting sprays or the Mehron Liquid work better I feel because pigments tend to stick to the brush better and then stick to the lid better as well because of the Glycerin in it. It acts like a bonding agent. Glycerin also acts like an oil where it absorbs quickly, but it's not an oil so thus that is where you get the "foiled" look with your pigments, shadows, or whatever, because the Glycerin keeps it looking wet without creasing. Now that I've informed you about Glycerin and it's benefits, lets talk about these pigments. The only draw back is that these don't have a sifter so they are quite messy when you open them up. I'll happily over look that though. These look impressive on their own dry but using them wet makes a huge difference. I'm super impressed by these. I wish there were more colors actually. They're just as good if not better than MAC pigments, MUG pigments, any pigment. They're finely milled so when applied wet they don't look "crusty" or like thick layers on the lid. They great basically, and if you like pigments you should give them a try.
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Somewhere in the chaos between Christmas and New Years, Kat Von D Beauty released the Alchemist Holographic Palette. Which is 4 shades of duo chrome powders that can be used as eyeshadow AND highlight. Now as you know there's been several products of Kat Von D Beauty that I didn't like. I'm happy to say, this is not one of those. So this is like a "holographic" palette packaging wise, and also with the duo chrome highlighters/shadows. The 4 shades are the size of regular eye shadow pans. Like the same size Makeup Geek or ABH single shadows. It's $32 and shaped like a triangle. The shades are as follows: " 4 x 0.05 oz/ 1.53 g Holographic Shades in Emerald (green), Saphyre (blue), Amethyst (ultra-violet), Opal (pink) " My favorite is the Amethyst and Opal. Those are the ones I use the most. At first I didn't really like that these were eye shadow size pans but now I actually really appreciate it. First of all, my highlight brush is a small tapered brush that works perfectly with the size. Second of all, I am more likely to use this palette on eyes and face because it looks like a eye palette. Now you can use a highlighter for eyeshadow anyway, but just seeing this as it is in the palette subconsiously makes me gravitate toward it and I use it more. Sounds odd but it's true. I'll go ahead and tell you not all the shades feel the same in texture, but in my opinion they all perform the same. Which is really all I care about. There's just not much more I can say about this. It's very cool. It's a bit compact and small so it's easy to store even though it's a triangle. Packaging is A+ per usual. The duo chromes are fantastic and noticable in person, not necessarily in pictures. Which I also like. It's made like an eye palette, but also really easy to use as a highlight palette as well and hey if it doesn't work as highlight for you then you have some nice eyeshadows. It's still a decent price even if it's only being used as eyeshadow. So to give a price comparison between what some shadows would cost if you bought 4: KVD = $32 MUG = $24 ABH = 4 for $40 usually MAC = $24 Melt Stacks = around 50 for 4 shades which are a bit bigger than these. Of course there are plenty of other single shadows out there but these were the most popular I felt. So this is around the mid line with price I guess you could say. I'm going to say though that I've not seen any duo chromes like the ones in this palette except for Opal which is done often in duo chromes. This is available in Sephora now. I'd definitely check it out if you like duo chromes. The swatches above are in a darker light on the left with camera flash and the right is with no flash and just a regualr light. With duo chromes you tend to see the shift when it's darker or on a dark base.
From top to bottom swatches are: Emerald Saphyre Amethyst Opal Alright guys, I'm coming at you with another palette review. I have to talk about this palette though. This is the new Tarteist Pro Amazonian Clay eye shadow palette and it's freaking gorgeous. Also, it smells wonderful, like chocolate kinda. It has 16 matte shades and 4 DUOCHROMES. You know I love duochromes. Making this a total of 20 shades all together. I will start off by saying that when I look at Tarte palettes, I love their face palettes or other products and I don't get super excited by their eye palettes because they are very neutral. beautiful for sure, but not something I personally need because I have plenty of neutrals. I buy them as gifts often because they are always great formula and I do have some smaller eye palettes from them but their bigger ones I don't usually buy for myself. This palette layout though is completely different. Not only is the palette layout different but it's also a different color scheme then what they normally do. Their is some neutrals but there is also beautiful berry shades, super warm shades, and cool toned. With saying that I'm going to say that I think this is right up there with the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette. Which is a HUGE statement. I have said all year that the ABH palette was "palette of the year" and I still feel like it's amazing but this palette just came in at the end and possibly took the crown. It's all personal preference though. For those of you who were intimidated by the berry shades in the MR palette and thought that it was very overwhelming, this palette may be more to your liking. It has those great berry shades and super warm shades but it also stays true to it's neutrals and has some cool toned options and the sickest black I've ever seen. It's more intense than Makeup Geek Corrupt shadow. That's right I said it. Not only are the shades beautiful but they blend like a dream, honestly they blend better than any palette that I have in my collection. I'm not lying. When I swatch them they are so soft that the "Tarte" stamp immediately goes away. and if you didn't know it was powder you would swear it was cream. The product doesn't clump up on the lids though. A lot of times when shadows are super soft and creamy feeling they tend to get clumpy easy if you get too much product on the lid. Not the case with these. Like I said there are 16 of these insanely formulated mattes. Now there are a few shades that feel a bit different than the others but the pigment is still there. Mainly it's just the darker shades. Smoked feels just slightly different, almost as soft but not really. Drama feels a little chalky and I think that's just due to it's purple-y tones, purples are just in general more difficult. Mod, which is the very intense cranberry shade, feels just a bit different as well but the pay off on that color alone is sick. Those are really the only ones that I notice feel any different, but like I said they still have the same pigment and payoff. Now on to the duo chromes. I love duo chromes, and that's actually what sold me on this palette was the fact that they were doing duo chromes and matte because that was so out of character I thought. All the duo chromes are super pigmented, but 2 have noticeable color shift and 2 have subtle color shift. I'm gonna say that in my eyes two are really just more of a intense shimmer and then 2 are duochromed. They're still beautiful none the less. The 2 that are really subtle are Ethereal and Minx. The 2 that are noticeable are Glam and Trendy. Ethereal is very bronzey and it's almost like several different shades of bronze. Like a golden bronze and then an orange bronze shift. Or that's what I see anyway, it's almost unnoticeable as a color shift but looking at it just right you can see it. Minx is mainly warm brown but it also has that cranberry vibe as well. Glam is a champagne that has a peachy pink shift to it, which I love. I think that's my favorite. Trendy has a forest green vibe and that's what you see first but it has some burgundy and then a brown-ish undertone as well which makes it the most noticeable duo chrome. These perform just as well as the mattes do and they're just as pigmented. This is going to be permanent in their line, they've also released a Tarteist Pro Glow highlight and contour palette that looks equally as pretty. These are formulated with the new motto of "#rethinknatural and #naturalartistry" which is where these products will perform to the highest standard while still being good for your skin and not have any harsh components in them. They also are geared more toward the artistry side of the industry I think, with their gold and matte black casing they're very kit friendly and would work well for someone who freelances or works as a professional makeup artist because they offer so much. Where as in the past we've seen a lot of pretty packaging and holiday sets that are beautiful no doubt but not ideal for traveling or packing in a kit. Of course this isn't the only line they're releasing the new holiday sets have already hit and they are the Painter's Collection so they're very art themed in packaging and design. They have a ton of product and lots of cool bells and whistles that make them absolutely great gifts. This line however is what I'm very impressed with. I just am so blown away with this palette alone that I can't even tell you to get it fast enough. It is now available on Tarte.com but will release November 13th in Ulta stores. It is $53 and worth every penny I think. It is permanent keep that in mind, so don't stress about it selling out and being gone forever. It is 1g/ 0.035 oz x 20 shadows. Swatches are two rows at a time from left to right which is top to bottom on my arm. First two rows/ left picture /top to bottom Classic, Innocent, Whimsy, and Smoked Vintage, Fierce, No Filter, and Vamp Bottom two rows/ right pic/ top to bottom Chic, Profesh, Mod, and Drama Indie, Bold, Edgy, and Punk These are the 4 lustre/duochromes, I took several shots of the swatches to try and catch the color shift the best I could. From left to right Ethereal Glam Mink Trendy I did a super dark Halo Eye with the black shade "Punk" on either side, the more cool toned shades for transition, and applied "Trendy" with my finger. I feel like it does apply better with my finger. I've also applied it wet as well with a brush. Ultimately I like to apply duochromes, metallic, or shimmer shades with my finger because I feel like they apply the most intense that way. I used super dark colors like black to show you that A) This blends out super easy and there was NO fall out. B) I wanted to go a different route from lighter toned neutral which is what you typically associate Tarte with. This is just a typical gradient neutral smokey eye that starts lighter in the corner and darker towards the outer part of the eye and smoked out on the bottom the same way. You can't see it very good because of the hat. My apologies.
Urban Decay knows how to do palettes. And I must say they knocked it out of the park with the new Full Spectrum palette. If you missed out on last years Kat Von D Mi Vida Loca Remix palette, this is your second chance for blasts of color. Now right away you need to know, this doesn't have any neutrals (I don't consider white a neutral). It's just a beautifully laid out, every shade of the rainbow, palette. I love how there are 3 shades in each color family, with each row being a color family. This will be available for purchase on October 26th and it's $58 (Some places are reporting it's $55), I believe it'll be in both Sephora, Ulta (but Sephora for sure) and UrbanDecay.com This has 21 shades. 18 new shades and 2 from the Alice in Wonderland palette and one from the Vice 3 palette. It also comes with a double ended brush. First lets talk about the packaging. Guys it's so pretty. It's a jeweled "UD" on the front that has every shade in the color spectrum in it. It's a plastic palette and it's different in design from a lot of palettes I've seen lately. It's keeping with the same size of the Vice palettes which is the medium sized square shape. When I think about it though, I feel like Urban Decay, out of all the companies that I like, always comes through with packaging. I loved the OG Naked palette, the Naked Smokey palette packaging, the Vice 4 and don't even get me started on the Alice in Wonderland palette. So they always do packaging right in my eyes. My favorite shades are: Minx Gossip Seize Calavera Sketch Warning I love the whole palette with exception of a few shades, but those are the ones that I really love. I do find that Gossip works better when I apply it with my finger. It's more pigmented and intense when I do that and it's a beautiful strawberry shade with shimmer. Sketch has even pigmentation but it's not as bright on the lid as it looks in the pan and it may need to be "built up" it's not patchy but it just might require a bit of layering to get the intensity you want . Not that it isn't beautiful it really is but I expected it to be just a tad brighter. Calavara (yellow) is super pigmented as well as Hatter (green) both being matte. Seize is absolutely beautiful in the crease to warm things up. Minx is navy blue with some sparse glitter in it and it actually looks navy and not black on the lid which is so hard to find. Especially, without using a white base underneath. Bump is actually really pigmented and stark white and I usually find that companies have a hard time producing a non dry, pigmented, opaque matte white. Jones is incredibly pigmented and looks like a foiled orange almost. Mean and Warning also have that "foiled" look to them as well. This has a mix of mattes, shimmers and glittery shades. It looks to me like there are 8 mattes, 8 shimmers and then 4 that have more glitter in them than shimmer to me. I guess Minx could go either way but I included it in the matte category even though it has SOME glitter. There were three shades that didn't impress me, because they didn't have the best or even pigmentation. Those shades are: Iced: it's super sparkly but that's all it seems to be is just silver glitter, I don't notice much of a base with that one. The glitter really comes through though. Faded: It looks really pretty in the pan with the golden shimmer over the taupe purple but it's just not consistent through out. Midnight Blaze: This is another really glittery one but it didn't have much glitter or pigment pay off when swatched. I done two sets of swatches with these. One in natural light and one with the flash on my camera. The reason I done this is because sometimes natural light gives you the true color of the shadow but a flash will pick up the shimmer and foiled look of the shadow. So I felt like it was really needful to do two sets.
In order, on both pictures, starting with the left picture going to the right picture, from top to bottom the swatches are: Paranoia, Jones, Goldmine, Mean, Metamorphosis, Faded and Bump. This is the more pale shades in the palette 2nd/middle picture Gossip, Seize, Calavera, Hatter, Blindsided, Sketch, and Iced. This is the brightest shades in the palette 3rd/right picture Alchemy, Warning, Midnight Blaze, Hundred, Minx, Delirious, and Platonic. These are the darkest shades in the palette. The pale shades are more noticeable with the flash obviously. Sketch didn't show up very well in the picture but it's better in person. I swatched these with my finger, without primer, and most of them are only one swipe. Which is how I do all my swatches. Like I said earlier, this releases the 26th. I personally really like this. I know it's getting mixed reviews but I think it's a really beautiful palette for people who love color. Yes there are a few shades that don't "wow" me but overall the palette is a hit in my book. Last year around this time Kat Von D released the Mi Vida Loca Remix palette, that was huge (size of a Vinyl record) and well loved. I still use that palette, it is fantastic. So this year she released another huge (and by huge I mean long) palette. It has 9 metallic shades and 13 mattes. This palette is so freaking long. It's like two Naked palettes end to end, that's how long it is. I'm willing to say it's a foot long. So the shades in this are gorgeous there's no doubt about it but I'm not gonna sugar coat this for you. I don't care for it. I love KVD products in general (except that Lock It Concealer) but this palette just isn't there for me. Some shades are great, don't get me wrong, but for me the palette is very inconsistent. The mattes in particular. They feel really silky and amazing at first (most of them) but some don't have the pigmentation that you expect from the brand or any pigmentation at all for that matter.
So the matte shades that I have an issue with are: Feather (no pigment) Linen (no pigment) Stone (chalky feeling and dry) Ribbon (chalky and patchy) Silk was another color that would not swatch for me, but when I used it on a brush it did apply quite well. The others didn't do that and believe me I tried. Bone has wonderful pigment and it's an off white but Linen which is entirely white has no pigment. Jet feels very dry but its totally black and does very well. Velour which is a cobalt blue, keeps its pigment and is absolutely gorgeous, same goes for Moss. Suede and Oak work really really well also. Feather which is a muted yellow has no pigment, none. Ribbon and Stone are very chalky and dry feeling and a bit patchy. Velvet (the last shade. Burgundy) is absolutely gorgeous though and is my favorite shade in the entire palette. I would buy that shade on it's own if I could. I really feel like in the palette the only transition shades you really have are Suede, Fringe, and Silk. However, what I really would've liked to have seen would've been a warm transition like a warm light brown, or a muted orange shade. I feel like this palette especially isn't for you if you dig those really warm creases or warm toned eyes. As for the metals, they swatch really nicely. They're very very pretty in the palette. My main concern was knowing the Metal Crush formula in the single shadows and how intense they were, that's what I expected with the "metals" in this. With some, that's definitely what you get but even with those, on me, 30 minutes later it's lost that intensity that it had when I first applied it. Other metals didn't even apply as intensely as the others. A few went on fantastic, I always apply metallic or foiled shades with my finger to get the most intensity, but it lost that foiled look really quick. It didn't crease or get patchy it just lost it's shine. It's not the primer I'm using, it's not the brushes, so that only leaves this palette. Some matte shades I absolutely love are: Velvet Suede Fringe Oak Velour Some metal shades I love regardless are: Tinsel Nebula Watt So, I'm not gonna keep you here longer than necessary. I just feel with the abnormally long size of the palette, the inconsistency in the shades, and the $60 price tag you could get something better. Perhaps try her Shade+Light Contour Eye Palette, the Metal Crush eyeshadows (especially Thunderstruck), or even the Quads maybe (I like Rust). I really wanted to love this but I just didn't. I'm not going to bother going through all the swatches because some you won't see cause they won't swatch (like Silk) but yet they apply well and some just don't do anything at all. The metals look beautiful when swatched but like I said they lose their shine real fast, at least on me. So I feel at this point swatches would be misleading. I'm sorry this is a negative post. I wanted to love it. If you still want to try it by all means go ahead, Sephora has a great return policy if you don't like it. Maybe I just got a bad palette, I don't know, but I will be returning this. As you know, I love Frends Beauty. With all my heart. I love them even more now because......they started carrying Inglot!! I had never tried Inglot before, I'd always heard great things but it was not anywhere around me and I didn't know much about the line other than seeing people use it occasionally as professional makeup. So when Frends Beauty started carrying it, I jumped on it. I bought quite a few products to test out and see what this line was really about and some things I loved, other things not so much. I really feel like Inglot is about mid line in their prices, kinda comparable to MAC. Definitely not as expensive as some brands at Sephora like Urban Decay or Too Faced, etc. Not as cheap as drugstore for sure though. Some things I'm surprised at how high the price actually is and others I'm pleased with how affordable they are. First up, what I wanted to try before anything else was their AMC Pure Pigments. I'd seen swatches of these pigments and some duo chrome looking ones. So I got three 2 are kinda similar but they're so pretty that I don't care. I got shades 84, 86, and 120 (Same order as swatches left to right). 86 was the shade I wanted without a shadow of a doubt. It has a rose gold type shade, a very vibrant duo chrome of pink and gold tones. Shade 84 has blue and purple tones with a darker cranberry/ red brown base. Shade 120 is like a duo chromed bronze green. It's not exactly olive though. They're great. I expected no less. I apply them with a damp brush that I just spray with setting spray or use contact solution to wet it so they're even more intense. I love that these are bigger chunks of pigment instead of finely milled pigment because it just looks like straight up metal on the lid and I think that's why, because this isn't a finely milled loose pigment. These are $16 a piece. If you add in the "Duraline" which is a water less clear liquid these pigments can turn into: liner, lipstick and more. Next I knew I wanted to try their gel liner because that is what I always associate Inglot with is their creme gel liner. They didn't have it in black so I got it in charcoal which is shade 78. Everyone is right this is so creamy and pigmented it glides on like a dream. I find it's easy to pick up too much product sometimes and also because of how creamy it is it's easier to make mistakes. However, eyeliner is one of the easiest things to clean up. Just take a clean angled brush and dip it into some remover and sharpen those wings like knives. This is $14. Something that I got that I really wasn't impressed with was the Long and Curly Mascara. I don't know what possessed me to buy this because I never like most mascaras. I just felt like this one didn't do anything at all including coat my lashes. I felt like it was so thin in formula that you could barely tell if I had any mascara on at all. So that was a fail. This is $14 I tried one of their foundations and this was the biggest surprise out of all of this. I think it's my all time favorite foundation. Like my holy grail. Which is the Inglot YSM Cream Foundation. Now, before hand my fave was probably the NARS Sheer Glow but this one has taken it's place. There was limited shades. So I was just shooting in the dark. The one I chose was #49 when it got here it looked so dark. In the container and on my hand both, it looked incredibly dark. So I was thinking "well that's just great". However, once applied because of it's medium coverage and healthy glow it was a perfect match! I've never had a foundation match my skin that good. Its super light weight, it feels like nothing and it also doesn't have to sit on the skin for a minute before it looks good. This looks beautiful on the skin as soon as you blend it in. I use a kabuki brush for it so that I have a little more coverage. Also because it has some luminosity to it so I don't want a damp beauty sponge to mess with the finish or coverage of it. It was one of those things I noticed right away, Most times when I try a foundation it's like mid day before I notice if my skin looks noticeably good, for those foundations that have made me notice my skin that is. This wasn't like that I blended it in and just stared at my skin. Before powder, concealer, or anything I was just so in love with how nice and healthy my skin looked. It didn't get super shiny through out the day. It did just a touch but basically it stayed the same finish and color (didn't oxidize) the entire day. So this is A+ for me. This is $18 Lastly I got the Under Eye Corrective Illuminator. I have dark circles and I always use a corrector. So I got this because it's pen style much like the MAC Light Boost, and YSL Touche Eclat pens. This has a good amount of pigment. It came kinda broken though their was a ton of product in the lid so it was super messy. The product itself is nice but probably not something I would get again. So it's just "eh" in my opinion. Nothing wrong with it but didn't blow me out of the water either.
Lately, there has been a lot of buzz around Juvia's Place eye shadow palettes. For good reason. They are affordable and the shadows inside are HUGE. The packaging is bright and fun. I absolutely love it inside and out. So this particular one is on sale right now for $32.50, it's limited edition, and you get 16 large shadows. Five of those shadows being matte. I've heard some say that the matte shades aren't the best or not as pigmented but I think for the most part they're great. The only one that I have a issue with is Bori, it's a hot pink matte with glitter. It doesn't swatch the best but it applies to the lid and crease just fine. Zobo feels a little dry but it also applies beautifully. The shimmers are absolutely insane, they're beyond creamy and pigmented, so I love this palette because you have a good mix of warm neutrals, colorful shades, and standard neutral shades. So I honestly would try this one first so that you can have a little of everything. The packaging is quite tall, it's thin but it is tall so bear that in mind for storage. I love this palette. Even with the two shades that don't feel as nice I still think it's an amazing palette. I'm actually headed to buy another one of their palettes because I do love this so much. I'll leave swatches down below of each row from left to right. I feel like Juvia's Place just exploded on the scene and it's completely deserved. Here is the direct link to the Masquerade Palette. Definitely go check them out. Swatches from top to bottom is in order of left to right in the palette, for reference.
Most of these swatches are just one swipe. There's also no primer being used the only ones that required more than one swipe was Bori and Zobo and I think I had to build up Cairo a little so you could see the intensity of it. Like I said these all apply wonderfully to the lid and they blend just as good. So I honestly can't say much of anything negative toward this palette. I'm super pumped for my next one. Recently I got introduced to JD Glow cosmetics. In particular their eye shadows. I'm just gonna tell you right off the bat and spoil the surprise, I love them. Go get them. Now. I'll wait. Then we can talk about how wonderful they are together and eat popcorn and what not. So I originally seen the Galaxy shadows and wanted to check them out. Then I realized they had more than just Galaxy...they have Matte, Shimmer, and Metallon lines as well. The majority of the shades I have are Galaxy though because I was really intrigued by the color shift in them. They're a mainly "duo chrome" shadow I feel or at least the ones I have seem that way, which you know I love. Some have shimmer, some are more foiled. They're just a big ball of fun.....or pressed pan of fun. These are $7.50 a pan. Which is really good. Especially for the size. I'm going to say these are almost double the size of a MAC, ABH or MUG single shadows. If they aren't they're impressively bigger. So for that alone the price is so insanely affordable. Quickly I want to mention that they have an array of other beautiful products that I haven't got to try yet from lips to highlighters. So they're actually a pretty good sized company in my opinion. With a lot more to offer and I'm going to bet that since these are so insanely good the rest of their products are probably just as good. The swatches from top to bottom are as follows: Peacock, Haze, Anomaly, Whip Appeal, Lit, Emerald and Sunray So here's my brief description of what I see in these shadows:
Peacock: This is a satin borderline foiled finish shade. Which has the teal and blue shifts in it. Haze: I thought this was purple online but it's actually a bright blue with purple shifts to it but predominantly blue. This does seem to have a bit of shimmer in it but not much. I still would say it's mainly a crazy pigmented satin-ish finish Anomaly: This shade friends....this is what dreams are made of. This is a blue and purple shift with crazy shimmer and the color shift is SO noticeable. It's just the prettiest thing I've ever seen. It looks like a bright blue online but it's much darker actually. Whip Appeal: This is a satin-ish finish that is medium orange and dark pink shift. It's more subtle than the others but still just as pigmented and so pretty. Lit: This shade is another one that just gives me life. I want to wear it or Anomaly every single day of my existence. It's a bright light pink or light coral pink, pretty much foiled finish, all types of wonderful, shade. I wouldn't really say it's rose gold, it's much more pink than what I vision as a rose gold. It does have a golden shift almost and it's quite shimmery much like Anomaly. It's so insane. GET THIS ONE. Emerald: This is from the Metallon line. It's a perfect emerald green. When I seen it I thought "finally an emerald green that isn't too dark". Which is the case most of the time they are too dark so they don't look green, they look black, or they're too bright. This is a perfect jewel toned green Sunray: This is from the shimmer line. This is the most intense cool toned yellow I've ever seen. Like a lemon yellow. It's absolutely beautiful. It is shimmery but it's also insanely foiled too so it's not like a "glitter" eye shadow. It's my favorite yellow I have. Strictly because of the shade of yellow that it is. Which you don't see often. All the other shades aside from Sunray and Emerald are Galaxy shadows. They all have a scent to them as well, I can smell it as soon as I open my palette. It doesn't bother me, it's not an offensive scent at all but I thought I'd mention it. Also the shadows are really super soft and creamy. I've found the only ones that have a different feel to them I personally think are: Anomaly which feels a bit more dry but not much, and Emerald which just doesn't feel as soft as the others. Either way it's not a huge difference and that doesn't bother me either, both of those shadows still perform insanely good and are incredibly pigmented just like the rest and when I say the "feel is different" it's just barely different. So obviously you know my thoughts. Go get them. I actually ordered 4 more right before I started working on this blog post. I love them and I can't stress it enough. The link to their site is at the top of this post. Seriously....go get them. Try them you will not be sorry! Below I've posted some photos of me wearing some of them. The first picture is Anomaly, Peacock and Emerald. The second picture is Lit and Whip Appeal. This is the Violet Voss Drenched Metal palette. They previously released the Holy Grail palette which was all warm shades, this palette followed shortly there after and they just recently done a collab with influencer Laura Lee. So as I have a ton of warm shades I wanted the one with more variety of color, not just bright colors but different colors. This one has some odd shades in it and I love that about it. My chief complaint is that there is only 2 real matte shades in this palette of 20 shadows. Luckily one matte shade is a peach shade which is my go to for a transition shade. The other is a basic black that is a bit dry to me and not the darkest black I've ever tried, but it still works. Most of the shades are gorgeous. I'm especially partial to Huntress and Frisky. "I'm So Fancy" is beautiful but I found it harder to work with. It was almost foiled in texture so I tried applying it with my finger and a brush and it wasn't as vibrant as I wanted it to be. It showed up well enough but not what I expected. Same with Dark Desires it doesn't show up as vibrant on the skin as it does in the pan. It's still very pretty though. Like I said, this has a variety of colors in it and I love that. Some are a bit similar in tone so they don't look extremely different to each other. It tends to be the more neutral shades that are similar to each other. A few shades anyway. The things that I love about this is even though the packaging is cardboard and simple, I really like it because it's super thin, light, and easy to carry. Also it has 20 good size shades to it. Which is awesome and most or at least 80% of the palette is super pigmented and good quality. The only other bummer is this palette is in the $50 range. While I think this is a good palette and yes you get 20 shades, I feel for the packaging, and some of the shades being very similar to each other or harder to work with, $50 seems a bit much. I would've like to have seen this $35-$40 maybe. That's just me though. Like I said the 20 shades is very hard to beat. Violet Voss is such an affordable brand though, I guess that's why this price tag is hard to digest for me. That's just my thoughts though. You could feel completely different and that's fine. The swatches above are the 1st two rows in the palette. All swatches has only 1 swipe. So from left to right: Poppin - a really gorgeous pale pink and gold duo chrome. Has to be built up though. Kisses - pale pink champagne shimmer which is very pigmented. A bit darker than Poppin. Confession- dead on dupe for the Mai Tai duo chrome from Makeup Geek. I love it. Crushed It - Rose Gold shimmer. Very pigmented. Secret - matte peach with some brown tones. A bit darker than Peach Smoothie from MUG. I'm So Fancy - a foiled type aqua green shade. It was hard to work with in my opinion. Mermaid Vixen - Silvery muted blue green. Not as pigmented as others. Grunge - Golden Taupe Brown shimmer Mink - Warm medium brown shimmer. Very close to Crushed It. Squad Goals - a cantaloupe melon shade shimmer This is the two bottom rows of the palette. Left to right swatches: Frisky - Royal Blue almost foiled. Not as shimmery as the others. I love this shade. Dark Desires - Royal Purple but it really is a lighter shade when applied. I have a hard time with this one. Slaycation - Blue Brown much like Blue Brown pigment from MAC and Insomnia from MUG Come Thru - Pale Yellow Gold shimmer Livin - Copper shimmer. I love this shade as well Shade - Strong Silver with a taupe-purple undertone. Very pigmented. Bliss - Golden Olive Green. Really pigmented. Really cool and different. Huntress - Dark Coppery Brown. I love this shade. Forbidden - Raspberry/Cranberry shimmer. Not dark like a burgundy a true cranberry shade. Midnight Tryst - Matte black. Pretty dry and not the darkest black I've ever seen. In this picture I'm using Confession on the majority of the lid. I'm So Fancy as outer shade initially and then Frisky is covering it up for the most part because it wasn't working well for me. I used Dark Desires for the purple cast you see in the crease above the navy shade. Secret is in the crease for transition since it's the only matte shade. I also used Frisky and I'm So Fancy on the tail of the brow because I have teal and blue in my hair and I thought it would be fun to add it to my brows. In this pic I'm actually only using about 3 shades. It's Secret in the crease, Bliss on the majority of the lid and Huntress on the outer corner and lower lash line. I really loved this combo. Bliss is a cool olive toned shade, very different and pairs up nicely with the copper in Huntress. In this pic I'm using Shade on the outer corner. Livin is in the center and Poppin on the inner corner and inner part of the lid. Secret is in the crease and Midnight Tryst is used to deepen the outer corner. This is much prettier in person and pictures don't really capture all the colors. So that's my thoughts on this palette. Overall it's really good. Some of the shades are not as good as the others but that happens a lot with palettes. This has a lot of different and cool colors that you do not see very much at all in palettes, which is one thing I love because the looks you could do are endless with this.
So as the whole makeup universe knows..... Jaclyn Hill has blessed us with another collab with Becca Cosmetics. This time they went hard in the paint folks. They introduced the whole Champagne Collection where the two palettes will be limited edition for sure but the shimmering skin liquid, and poured skin perfector of Champagne Pop will be in the permanent line. So I already have Champagne Pop so I didn't get the face palette. I got the eye palette. I had never tried Becca eye shadows and this was a perfect time. I got mine at Sephora the link is here. So you have 5 shades. Two are shimmery almost foiled type and the other three are really good neutral-warm matte shades. On first glance it's obviously beautiful, the perfect neutral-warm everyday palette. Perfect for nearly everyone. On first impression of swatching them, the matte shades were drier than what I expected. The shimmers were insanely pigmented. I was really afraid that the mattes weren't going to hold their pigment but they did a really good job. So this was the look I done. I wanted it to be a "halo" eye with a bright inner corner, but it didn't really go that way. I don't know what happened. This is where I get into my only, very minor, issue. The darkest shade which is a cool toned dark brown I wish was either a little darker or a bit more pigmented. What I'm saying is, it wasn't "dark" enough to make the halo pop. The other matte shades were fantastic in the crease. They were SO blendable and awesome. The shimmers actually surprised me too. I applied Champagne Toast first and it was shimmery and great but it blended in with the dark shade Bordeaux. So what I had to do to make this pop was put Chardonnay underneath and then add Champagne Toast to make it pop against Bordeaux. I know that Champagne Toast is "the shade Jaclyn Hill created" and you can tell it's awesomely golden but also rose gold as well. It's really beautiful and pictures don't do it justice. To me it looks really yellow in tone in a picture like a yellow gold but in person you really see how different it actually is. My favorite shade is Chardonnay I mix it with Champagne Pop actually for extra highlight. It's in the inner corner as well. Cognac is my favorite matte shade. I buff this in the crease like it's a party and I'm bringing the cake friends....it's an AWESOME warm brown. So overall I think this is a really nice palette. It comes back in stock on June 16th I believe. Maybe sooner for the eye palette but the face palette is going to be June 16th as of now and it will be in stores. This is a neutral-warm palette so bear that in mind if you don't care for those colors. It's the same price as all their other palettes which is $40 for 5 good size shadows. The packaging is BEAUTIFUL though on this particular palette. Basically, here's what it boils down to....this is limited edition with limited edition shades you have until the 16th to think on whether or not you want it because after that it's gone for good. In general I don't buy much limited edition stuff thanks to MAC because if I love it I can never get it again but this palette is something that you could find similar shades once your done with it. I really do think it's a great everyday palette to have. It will obviously be beautiful among your makeup and stand out. If you aren't for the price tag then I will direct you to Jaclyn's video of her "go-to" palette or "favorite shadows" palette where you will find similar shades that are less expensive like Makeup Geek and MAC pans that are $6 a shadow but when you divide this up it's $8 a shadow so that's less expensive than a ABH shadow. It's all in how you look at it, do you love it as a whole or for one shade? Sephora promos as of right now: 12 free samples for skin hair and face with $25 purchase. Code: "oasis" Free Lancome mask mini with $25 purchase. Code: "meltmask" Code "Future" for what's left of some skin serums and facial sprays Kate Somerville Goat Milk Moisturizing Cream Mini with $25 purchase. Code: "goatmilk" Choose 1 of 3 skin care minis with $25 purchase. Code: "immortal" If you're going to buy from Sephora online then get you some cash back by signing up for Ebates. It's free, it never costs you anything to use Ebates. **update: According to Jaclyn Hill's snapchat, they aren't going to restock this palette because these are a different formula and not what they normally put out...long story short they used a different lab and basically this didn't turn out to be what they wanted or what they have had in the past and especially not what Jaclyn Hill wanted as far as an eye palette. Which is understandable, while this is a good palette it's not what I expected from Becca but because I had never tried Becca shadows I didn't know what to expect. I'm truly glad that Jaclyn Hill addressed it herself. Which is why I'm updating this post to let you know it's not going to be coming back and to those of you who have it and do not like it you can get a full refund for it. I'm not going to say that it's terrible by any means, it's just not what you expect from Becca and they know that which is why they're doing the best they can to remedy the situation. I encourage you to watch Jaclyn Hill's snapchat and get the full story though. Also....be kind. That is all. |
ErinI'm from Tennessee. I'm a makeup and skincare lover. I have always enjoyed creating looks but I love to help people with product knowledge and application even more. I've been able to start blogging and do these things I love because God has seen fit to bless me with the opportunity. Thanks for stopping by and visiting with me! Categories
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