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Showing posts with label Beauty and the Brown Girl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beauty and the Brown Girl. Show all posts



Congratulations "NoraGrahe"!!! You've won the Mac Holiday Glitter and Pigment boxed set!! Please respond within 48 hours with your mailing address so I can get it sent out to you as soon as possible. 

Thanks so much to everyone who entered!!

As the title suggests, I don't know what to call this look, lol. It started out with just a simple green eyeshadow, but then I darkened the crease and blended some purple above that...

Beauty Breakdown:

All Urban Decay Eyeshadows:
Damaged all over lid
Smokeout in the crease
Voodoo blended above the crease
Righteous under brow
Vengeance in crease

Mac Pearlglide liner in Undercurrent on waterline
Sephora "Mink" lashes (I know I said I didn't like these, lol)

Tarte Brow Mousse in brows
Was having some fun with 2 of my favorite shades - Purple and Pink! I would never wear something this bold and colorful out, but I love playing in my makeup from time to time!

* I also decided to stick with my new liner technique of starting from the middle of my upper lid, instead of the inner corner. So far I think it works well with my eye shape.

Face:
Estee Lauder Double Wear Light in 5.0
Black Radiance Complexion Perfection Concealer

Brows:
Sleek Storm Palette Dark Brown mixed with Black


Eyes:
Urban Decay Loose Pigment in Asphyxia
Mac Later Pigment
Ulta Bone Eyeshadow
ELF Cream Liner in Black
YSL Faucils Mascara 
 Guerlain Terracotta Kohl Kajal on waterline

Cheeks:
Mac Pink Glow
Lips:
Mac Violetta
Shu Uemura PR 050
This was done early in the morning, so excuse my sleepy face, lol (and yes I'm wearing a fluffy red bath robe)

Face:
Estee Lauder Double Wear Light in 5.0
Black Radiance Complexion Perfection Concealer

Brows
Calvin Klein Brown Velvet Eyeshadow

Eyes
Chanel Tentation Cuivrée (all colors except the pink glittery one)
Mac Modest Tone (highlight)
YSL Fauxcils Mascara (just got a new tube!)

Cheeks
Makeup Forever HD cream Blush #6
E.L.F. Studio Gotta Glow

Lips
Revlon Colorburst Lipstick in Hazelnut
Chanel Glossimer in Spark
During the $2 UD sale, I also managed to add these 3 brushes to my cart in the 10 seconds it took for them to sell out, lol.

When I was looking at these online, I was most excited about the blush brush since I needed something with a shorter handle that would fit in my purse. Now that I see it in person, I'm a little disappointed. The brush is kinda floppy and fibers seem like they should have be cut shorter. The long   hairs make it harder to control placing and blending blush.  This thing also takes for EVER to dry, which is a huge inconvience.

I was pleasantly surprised by both the Brow and Eyeshadow brushes. From other reviews I'd read, I thought the brow brush would be too soft and flimsy to really get in between brow hairs and deposit color. Those reviews were so wrong! This brush is soft, but its also stiff at the same time. It fills my brows in perfectly with very little effort on my part. The thin, tapered edge is also great for precisely getting in between those sparse little hairs at the end of my brows.
In the 3 days I've had it, this little thing has fast become my holy grail brow brush! I'm currently scouring the internet looking for a backup since I can't imagine being without this brush ever!

The eyeshadow brush, while not as life-changing as the brow brush is also really good. Its not like a typical shadow brush in that theres nothing fluffy or full about it. Its so flat it reminds me more of a concealer type of brush, which is great for packing loose pigments on with precision and minimal fallout. Its most definitely not for blending, but thats okay because I have a million of those $1 fluffly E.L.F brushes to do that.
When I was swatching my new UD pigments, I realized that Rockstar looked like a perfect dupe for Later pigment from Mac.  Sure enough as I put them side by side on my arm I could barely tell the difference.

Although both are black based purple shadows with some glitter in them, the glitter in Rockstar is chunkier and shows up more when its applied over a primer and the pigment itself looks richer and darker with a primer underneath. Later swatched about the same with or without a primer and it also wins points for being easier to apply and for the more conveinent packaging.

* I know a lot of people complain about the Mac pigment packaging, and I was never a huge fan of it, however after using the very poorly designed and super messy UD packaging, the Mac doesn't seem all that bad anymore.
 Click read more to see the swatches side by side.
 Back in December, HauteLook had another Urban Decay sale, but this time everything was $2.00 (no thats not a typo, lol). So since I already had 5 UD loose pigments from a previous Hautelook sale, I decided to complete my UD pigment collection.

These are no different from the first 5 that I brought: the packaging is silly, the built in brush is useless and creates a huge mess, and these really need a good primer to stick to your skin.
To see the swatches click read more.
Gingersnap Artisan Baked Bronzer

Toasted Almond Artisan Baked Blush
While I'm not too impressed with some of the Black Radiance makeup I got the other day,  some of it I'm absolutely in love with! The Toasted Almond blush is so gorgeous on brown skin, the color is like no other in my collection. Its not too pink, red or brown, but just a perfect combination of all three to leave a natural looking, warm flush of color to my cheeks. Its pigmented, but blends out beautifully and can also be built up for a more dramatic look. 

The Gingersnap bronzer swatches as more of a slightly pinkish-gold and works well as a highlighter. The glitter isn't too chunky and if this is applied with a light hand, its subtle enough to use as a brow bone highlight as well as on the tops of the cheeks.

The eyeshadow were prob the biggest disappointment. The swirling baked colors look so pretty in the pan, but apply as one basic gold and basic bronze. They're still pretty, but nothing spectacular.
Rum Spice Artisan Baked Eyeshadow

I've had this loose eyeshadow from NYX in Penny for years and loved the shimmery, rich color, but never knew how to use it. Well it appears I still don't know how to make it work for me.

Everything with this look turned into one big fail. I was going for a simple but still festive and shimmery look. This red however, was just too overpowering and made me look kinda sickly in person. My eyes were also irritated for some reason and wouldn't stop watering which led to my falsies not staying on because the glue couldn't dry. Ugh, it was such a mess every time I blinked the lashes came off!

The next time I use this color, I think I'll add some dark brown or even black to the outer corners to give it more depth and maybe some gold to the inner corner to make the red less overpowering. What do you guys think? I love the way this color looks in the jar and really want to put it to good use. Should I keep trying with this or is it time to just move on?


One of the things I love about visiting my family is having access to products and brands geared more towards woc and that aren't sold where I live. One of these brands, Black Radiance looked really promising, and the prices weren't too rich for my bank account, so picked up a few items.

So far I have:
Complexion Perfection Concealer in Light to Medium
Artisan Baked Eyeshadow Mint Julep
Artisan Baked Eyeshadow Rum Spice
Baked Blush in Toasted Almond
Baked Bronzer in Gingersnap
Prismatic Lipgloss in Diva
Shimmering Lipgloss in Mocha

The concealer is dual ended, with one side a liquid and the other a creamy stick. I wore the stick side yesterday and it faired really well, not creasing under my eyes and covering my dark circles. I did notice that the liquid side is slightly darker in color and may be better for my blemishes.

The eyeshadows aren't as gorgeous on as I thought they would be. Mind Julep looks mostly like a plain gold on me and Rum Spice looks like more of a bronze. They're both rather sheer unless applied wet.

The blush is my fav of the bunch. The color is highly pigmented and blends beautifully into my skin. The bronzer is also pretty good. It works better as a highlight since it does have glitter in it.

The glosses are also good. I love the texture, its smooth and not too sticky. Diva is a gorgeous pinky-gold thats sheer but buildable and very flattering on brown skin. Mocha is a more pigmented dark brown color with tiny, tiny flecks of gold and green (yes GREEN) glitter in it. I know that sounds weird for a lipgloss, but the overall effect is really pretty.

I have closeup pix of the blush, bronzer and lipglosses, but blogger will only let me upload 5 pix in this post, can anyone tell me how to change that?