November 2014 Eyeshadow Palette of the Month: MAC Leopard Lux Quad

Hi there! After my recent birthday/holiday splurges, I think it’s best if I try to focus on using one eyeshadow palette a month. I am a complete eyeshadow/blush lover (or hoarder), so I figure I would start choosing one palette to use each month to ensure that all of my eyeshadows get some love. . I think I have enough eyeshadows to last me all the way until 2016, but I’m sure that won’t stop me from getting more at the next makeup sale.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, one being that I will always use MAC Brown Script no matter what palette I’m using because it’s such an awesome transition color for me. Without further ado, below are swatches from MAC’s Leopard Lux Quad, ENJOY!

Top To Bottom: Furiously Fabulous (VP), Style Predator (VP), Notoriety (V), Wild By Nature (M) 

What eyeshadow palette are you using this month?

What's in my ZPalette?

I FINALLY did it! I uploaded a video to YouTube! Please enjoy and don't forget to like, subscribe, and share. 

In this video, I describe my 'depotting disaster' story and provide my personal opinion on the zpalette. Depotting is such a pain and I think that the MAC palettes are the best buy for the money as the ZPalettes do not hold up well when traveling (specifically for air travel). 

Here are some close ups of my ZPalette. As you can tell it's already a little dusty from the Wet N' Wild eyeshadows and I am already worried that the colors are going to mix together, but I'll stick it out to see how things go. 

Uh Oh! Birthday Makeup Shopping….

I went overboard, or did I? I go back and forth between thinking I brought too much and then I think, well heck, it was my birthday and it’s good to have something that you love. What do you think? Below is a list of my makeup purchases. I’ll add pics of the beauties as soon as they are in my grubby, little hands.

MakeupGeek Store Buys

• Cocoa Bear
• Chickadee
• Barcelona Beach
• Cupcake
• Bitten
• Moondust
• Envy
• Mango Tango

AND a gunmetal “To Go” palette to put all of them in!

Then I happened to be browsing crystalis007.com (one of my favorite YouTube beauty bloggers) site and noticed that she had some pretty darn good items on the Blog Sale page. These items aren’t brand new, but they’re pretty dang close and they’re new to me.

Crystalis007 Blog Sale

• MAC “O” Lipstick
• Mac Eyeshadow Quad in Colour
• MAC Eyeshadow Quad in Leopard Luxe

What have you hauled lately?

Product Probe: Make Up Forever Artist Shadows

As a makeupaholic, I knew when the hype started surrounding the new, re-formulated MUFE Artist Shadows, I would have to try them out. I read a few reviews and was only a tad bit disappointed when they arrived, but we'll get to that in a minute. 

First off, these shadows are pricey. When I say pricey, I mean $21 each. I let them sit in my Sephora cart for at least a week before I decided that I would spend the money. The upside to the pricing, is that when you purchase a MUFE palette (2-pan or 3-pan) for $1, you can get 3 eyeshadows for the price of 2, so I paid $42 for the eyeshadows and $1 for a 3 pan palette.

Now on to the slight disappointment. After watching reviews of these shadows on YouTube, I expected them to be insanely pigmented. In my opinion, they aren't as pigmented as a LORAC eyeshadow, but they are easy to blend and buildable, which makes it all better. I would probably purchase these again because these are slightly larger than MAC eyeshadows and I would like to try out different colors to see if the pigmentation differs depending on the finish.

Below are swatches from left to right: Pink Brown (matte), Pink Ash (satin), Rust (Iridescent). 

Do you own any MUFE Artist Shadows? What do you think?

Randomness: Project 10 Pan Update

Morning Lovelies! I had a post all geared up and ready to go this morning, but it just didn’t feel quite right, so instead I’m posting an impromptu project pan update (yay). While I’m not going to show the actual products because I haven’t made a big dent since the weekly makeup basket (shown here), I thought I’d share with you what I’ve actually finished so far. Mind you, this is makeup only (which is pretty darn hard to do in my opinion). So here’s the list of items I’ve finished with P10P items in purple.

• Make Up Forever Mat Velvet + - This used to be really mattifying for me, but lately hasn’t seemed to hold a candle to my Revlon Colorstay. I would repurchase this again.

• NYX HD Concealer – Still not quite sure how I feel about this one. I did like the applicator and the price!

• Loreal Voluminous Carbon Black Mascara – At the price, can’t beat it with a stick. I would definitely repurchase this once I get through some of my deluxe samples of mascara.

• Clinique Stay Matte Foundation – I don’t even know why they put ‘Stay Matte’ in the name of the foundation. It may be good for normal skin, but did not work on my oily t-zone.

• Model in a Bottle – I really like this setting spray, but would like to try the Skindinavia setting spray for comparison.

• Anastasia Brow Wiz – I need this in my life. ‘Nuff said

• Hourglass Mineral Veil Primer – Same as the Anastasia Brow Wiz, it’s a must have.
• Lorac Behind the Scenes Primer – I can’t really tell the difference between the staying power of this and the Urban Decay Primer Potion, I’ll buy whichever is on sale.

Weekly Makeup Basket – October 13th, 2014

So.....this week's makeup basket is pretty much unchanged from last week, that's why there are no new pictures :(. I have been having the worse breakouts lately and in order to figure out what the heck is the cause, I decided to go back to some of the basics. I stopped using the Tarte Clean Slate primer this week because of the small bumps that I've noticed in the areas where it is applied, and I also switched out my Lancome foundation for the tried and true Revlon Colorstay. I don't know if anyone else feels like this, but I'm somewhat bummed out with the high end foundations I've tried so far. Not 1 holds a candle to the Revlon Colorstay for oily/combination skin, does anyone else feel this way? I also noticed that my skin is clearer when I used the Revlon even though the product doesn't claim to have any acne fighting ingredients. *Sigh*, what is a girl to do. I'm thinking of stopping with the high end foundations for a while, until I decide if they are really worth the price (I haven't found one yet that is really worth the higher price tag). 

What's in your makeup rotation this week?

Lorac Mega Pro Palette (Limited Edition) -_-

Seriously Lorac? Couldn’t make a few hundred thousand more Mega palettes so that everyone could get one? Unfortunately, the Lorac Mega Pro palette is selling out everywhere, but Amazon is due to have 1 more shipment coming in, so if you are interested sign up now to get an e-mail notification when the palette becomes available, I promise you won’t regret it. 

Product Probe: Z-Palette's

If you've read yesterday's post, you are all too aware of my hellish, self-inflicted ordeal with depotting some of my eyeshadows. Despite my trials with depotting, I really do love the idea of being able to make a custom palette with eyeshadows, blushes, and bronzers that I already own. Not only does this help me use products that I am less-likely to use due to bulky packaging, or the fact the the product is hidden in my drawer under other products. With me making a point to love all my products, having the ability to add a blush or an eyeshadow to a weekly palette makes getting ready for work SOOO much easier (since I seem to wake up at the very last second, every single day). So on to the review.....

I was so excited to receive my Z-Palette, which I purchased from the Makeup Geek store online. Not only are Z-Palettes available in various colors, they are also fairly priced at $20 for a large palette (the size shown in yesterday's post). One of the good things about Z-Palettes is that they come with square and round magnets that have stickers on the back, which can be easily attached to various product pans, if the pans do not automatically stick to the bottom of the palette. Unfortunately, for the price, I am not a fan of the decorated cardboard that is used to make the Z-Palette. While it's sturdy for sitting on one's makeup vanity, if you try to clean it, it's a wet mess. I would much rather spend $8 for the large MAC pro palette, which is made of more durable materials. I really want to love the Z-Palette, but for the price and the material, the MAC palettes are a much better buy (and you can buy the same magnet stickers online starting at $3 from Amazon).

Do you own a Z-Palette? What's your preference?

Depotting Disasters!

For some strange reason, last week I decided it would be a great idea to depot some of my ‘less’ used eyeshadows and fill up the z-palette that I ordered from Makeup Geek months ago. After watching countless YouTube depotting videos, searching Pinterest, and looking at blogs, I was up for the challenge….and then I got started. Depotting is not for the faint of heart and I learned that I am the faint of heart. Not only did I have to rip up the packaging for the Urban Decay Ammo Palette to get the shadows out (luckily I wasn’t head over heels in love with shadows), but I also got powder and shadow all over my vanity. Some of the shadows have huge chunks missing from them as scars from the move. After all of the struggle, I also learned (the hard way) that domed products DO NOT fit into the standard z-palette, hence I cannot close the palette with my Laura Geller baked blush in it. I have learned my lesson, I am officially against depotting and plan to buy all future shadows as individuals if I plan to transport them. L

Have you tried depotting? 

Weekly Makeup Basket – October 6th, 2014

In an effort to consciously use more of my makeup products (and feel less guilty about all the 2014 holiday collections I’m going to purchase), I plan to start doing weekly makeup baskets. This will help me focus on specific products in the mornings and not get distracted because I literally have the attention span of a 2-year old when it comes to makeup. So without further ado, let’s get into what’s in this week’s makeup ‘basket’.

(Items in purple are part of my project pan)

•  Tarte Clean Slate Poreless Primer
• No. 7 Shine Free Face Primer
• Covergirl & Olay Simply Ageless Eye Corrector (I hate this - wrong color and too heavy)
• NYX Matte Bronzer

• NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Cashmere
• Revlon Brow Fantasy (Dark Brown) 
• Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara (deluxe sample size)
• Urban Decay Primer Potion (sample)

• Lancome Teint Idole Ultra 24-hour Foundation 
• Kat Von D Lock It Tattoo Powder Foundation

• Urban Decay Ammo Palette - I recently depotted this into a z-palette. Not sure how I feel about depotting other products to save space, seems like a hellish, messy process.
• Jordana Easyliner Retractable Pencil (not shown)
• MAC Brown Script (shown between the blush and UD Ammo Palette)
• Laura Geller Baked Blush (not sure what color - purchased this on HauteLook

What do you use on a weekly basis? 

Product Probe: Make Up For Ever Mat Velvet + Matifying Foundation

As I am nearing the end of my bottle of Mat Velvet + foundation, I figure it would be a great time to provide a review.  I ordered this online from Sephora in June 2013 for $36.00, which isn’t bad for a ‘high-end’ foundation. It is now October 2014, which seems like a long time to finish this foundation, but during the past year, I also focused on finishing a Clinique foundation that I hated but forced myself to use until the very last drop.

Would I repurchase this foundation? Heck yeah! I have oily/combination skin and I love a matte finish. This foundation wears well for a 10-hr workday with minimal touch ups. I apply this foundation with my brush / real techniques sponge (depending on my mood) and then set with a powder. While I won’t purchase this immediately, because I have 3 or 4 other foundations that I would like to use first, this is definitely one of my top 3 foundations.

Have you ever tried the Make Up For Ever Mat Velvet +? What’s your favorite mattifying foundation?