Bare Minerals Shades of Decadence Collection - Pictures and Swatches

I picked up the Bare Minerals Shades of Decadence collection a while back and wanted to share some swatches and pics. This set is exclusive to QVC (A225833) and retails for $80.00 + tax/shipping. It has 9 loose eyeshadows, 3 small Moxie Glosses, and 3 small natural lipglosses. Some of the shades are repeats from past kits.

A portion of the insert listing the colors included:

The set comes with 9 loose eyeshadow colors. Most colors have great pigmentation. I think Brave is the most sheer as it's described as a "veil".  :

Splendid - High Shine Texture- Metallic copper

Rose Gold - Repeat - Peachy rose with gold glimmer

Atomic Plume - Plum glimmer with grayish cast

Aglow - Repeat - Gorgeous whitish pink glimmer highlight shade - would be great for inner corners

Brave - Repeat (I think) - Yellow with gold glimmer

Cypress - Forest Green with gold glimmer

Wink - Grayish Green glimmer

Glitz - Gorgeous Purple with multicolored glimmers

Gilt - Greenish yellow satin

Some pics of the shadows:

Splendid                                                                        Rose Gold

Atomic Plume                                                                        Aglow

Brave                                                                        Cypress

Wink                                                                        Glitz

Gilt

Some swatches of the shadows (all swatches done dry, no primer):

Top to bottom/left to right: Splendid, Rose Gold, Atomic Plume, Aglow, Brave, Cypress

Left to Right: Wink, Glitz, and Gilt

Now on to the lips. The set comes with 6 small lipglosses. I like these as they fit nicely in your purse or pocket and don't take up a ton of room. Great for travel. The moxie shades all have great pigmentation. The shades of the 3 moxie glosses in the kit are:

Vixen - A berry shade

Temptress - Deeper rose

Tantalizer - Gorgeous champagne nude

There are also 3 small natural lipglosses. I believe these are all repeat colors, but it's nice to have them in the smaller size for portability. These tend to be more sheer than the moxie glosses. The shades are as follows:

Starfruit - Pretty pink/peach with gold shimmer

Wearable Mauve - Really nice nude pink/brown

Raspberry Truffle - Sheer berry

Some swatches:

Top shades left to right: Natural Lipgloss in Starfruit, Wearable Mauve, and Raspberry Truffle.

Bottom shades left to right: Moxie Glosses in Vixen, Temptress, and Tantalizer

All in all this is a really nice kit. I like the variety of colors included in both the eyes and lips. It's nice that the eyeshadows are full size instead of the mini jars. I'd have to say my favorite eyecolors are the bottom three: Wink, Glitz, and Gilt. Out of the lipglosses, my favorites are Wearable Mauve, Temptress, and Tantalizer.  

**All items were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.**

Essie Decadent Dish - Swatches and Review

Painted my nails yesterday using Essie's Decadent Dish. This is a gorgeous color for fall/winter. I'd describe it as a brownish burgundy shade with some shimmer. Essie is my favorite polish brand. I find these shades just last and last on me. I can easily get 5 days or more out of an application.

Here are pics of my nails. I used Zoya's Get Even basecoat (which I'm sort of testing out) followed by 3 coats of Decadent Dish. I finished with China Glaze No-Chip Topcoat which is my favorite top coat. 

Closer view

**All items were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.**

Bare Minerals Ready 8.0 Palette - The September Issue - Swatches and Review

So I know I'm a little late to the game in posting this, but I wanted to get up some swatches of the other Ready 8.0 palette that I bought from Bare Minerals. I picked up the September Issue a little while back and the shadows in this palette are just gorgeous.

You get 8 shadows in a great range of shades and finishes. Most are on the more neutral side with the exception of Statement and Editor's Pick. All the shades have great pigmentation as do just about all the Ready Shadows I've tried (and I have just about all the quads). What's really nice with this palette is that there are some matte shades thrown into the mix as well with Tres Chic and Ensemble. You also get some satin finishes with Statement and Silhouette. The other 4 shades are on the shimmery metallic side but they have very little fall out.  

Some swatches in the order they are in the palette

Top row

Bottom row

You can pick the palette up at Sephora and it retails for $40. 

**All items were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.**

Lush Review - Limited Edition Twilight Shower Gel

So I picked up some Lush items over black Friday weekend when they were offering free shipping. I go through phases with Lush and hadn't been paying attention to their holiday offerings. When I saw they were offering a Twilight Shower Gel in honor of the Twilight bath bomb, I knew I had to jump on it.

I hardly ever take baths any more as I prefer showers. I did take one a couple months back and used a Twilight bath bomb though. Loved the scent! It's a really calming mix of Lavender, Vanilla, and Benzoin. The lavender is not cloyingly herbal like some lavender scents can be. It just adds a nice purple edge to the scent and dare I say, it's really yummy!

So the shower gel arrived and I was excited to use it. I cracked open the seal and was blown away but how awesome it smells. This smells even better than the bath bomb in that the scent is stronger and more defined. It's a pretty balanced blend of Lavender and Vanilla with the benzoin in the background tying them together. I don't know why Lush has to make this limited edition. I think it should be around all year long.

The gel itself is a pretty dark purple color and even though there is silver glitter in it, I find most of it settles to the bottom of the bottle and doesn't present any issue when using it. I'm glad I picked up the 16 oz. bottle as I do not want to be running out of this one for a while. I do really wish Lush would expand their shower gel collection for us non-bath people as most of their regular offerings, with the exception of Olive Branch, are pretty meh.

You can get this at your local Lush store or online at lushusa.com. There are three sizes available (3.3 oz - $9.95, 8.8 oz - $18.95, and 16.1 oz - $27.95).

**All items were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.**

Wet N Wild - Sparkle Til Morning 8 Pan Palette - Swatches and Review

I was fortunate enough to pick up the 8 pan limited edition Wet N Wild Palette that I had my eye on, Sparkle Til Morning. I say fortunate because these are found in endcap displays (in my local Walgreens at least) and contain a total of two of each of the palettes. I grabbed the last one in Sparkle til Morning, which is the only one I was interested in to begin with. The one I found also had a slight crumble in the top pink shade, but that was not enough to deter me from purchasing.

Let's get right to the pictures:

Swatches - Top row is the right side of the palette, bottom is the left. No primer used.

These shadows have great pigmentation. I especially like the right side of the palette even though it reminds me of some of the colors in previous limited Wet N Wild Trios that have come out. All the shades on the right side of the palette swatched with no effort at all in one pass over. The bottom row required slightly more effort in that I had to go over them twice. Still great colors though. 

For the price ($4.99 retail, you can probably find a sale as well), these Wet N Wild Palettes are a steal. I usually stay away from drugstore eyeshadows because they generally have terrible payoff. Wet N Wild is an exception for me. The only other drugstore brand that I will occasionally purchase from is NYX as their shadows tend to be pretty good as well. 

I found my palette in my local Walgreens. Not sure if you can find these in any drugstore that carries Wet N Wild, but it was in a special display hanging on the end of the aisle. Keep your eye out if you are interested in picking one up. 

**All items were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.**

Bare Escentuals Ready 8.0 Palette - The Star Treatment - Photos and Swatches

I know it's been a while but I finally had some time to post some pics of new goodies I recently picked up. One of the items I picked up is one of the new Ready 8.0 palettes from Bare Minerals. I picked up both the September Issue and the Star Treatment. I'm going to focus this post on the Star Treatment palette. I love this palette. This is the best option out of the three new palettes if you like neutral colors.

First, some pics:

As usual with the Bare Escentuals Ready shadows, these have great pigmentation and are for the most part very soft with the slight exception of Bragging Rights which tended to have a little grittier feel. Still glides nicely and produces great payoff though. VIP also produces a small amount of fallout while swatching as you can see in the pic. Nothing major though just something to be aware of. 

These are the swatches in the order they are in the palette. 

Some Close-ups

Close ups of the top row (T-B: VIP, Connoisseur, Carte Blanche, Ritzy)

Close ups of the bottom row (T-B: Kudos, Bragging Rights, Elitist, Extravagance) 

As you can see, all the shades in the palette have some shimmer or a metallic finish to them. I would have to say that my favorites are Ritzy (a gorgeous taupe brown color), Bragging Rights (a beautiful rose gold shade), Extravagance (a light gold), and VIP (a black with gold shimmers).  

The palette also comes in a set with a mini size of the prime time eye primer (regular version). Bare Escentuals original Prime Time eye primer is one of my top two eye primers that I like to use. I find it is not greasy and really makes my shadows stick and last. My other favorite primer for reference is Urban Decay's Eden Primer for its neutralizing properties. 

So all in all, really happy with this palette. I did not pick up the Finer Things palette as I was trying to limit myself to the one I would use more often. There is not a bad color in the bunch with this palette and I know I'll get a lot of use out of it. The set retails for $40 and can be found at Sephora and Bare Escentuals. 

**All items were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.**

L'Oreal 24 Hour Infallible Eye Shadows - Iced Latte, Amber Rush, Bronzed Taupe - Photos and Swatches

After hearing a lot of hype over the new L'Oreal 24 Hour Infallible Eye Shadows, I had to pick up a couple when I saw them in the store. These are a pressed pigment type of shadow. It doesn't seem like any binding agents were used to actually keep the shades permanently pressed. That's why there is the little plastic presser that comes inside the jar so that you can continue to press the pigment down as you use it.

From Left to Right - Iced Latte, Amber Rush, Bronzed Taupe

The shadows come in little jars and are very metallic. If shimmer is not your thing, then these are not for you. That being said, they are not glittery. They glide onto the skin effortlessly and provide great payoff. The colors are also very rich.

I haven't worn these yet, so I can't attest to the claim that they last 24 hours. I can say that they did require a decent amount of scrubbing to get them off though so there is hope that they really are long wearing.

From left to right - Iced Latte, Amber Rush, and Bronzed Taupe

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much I paid for these when I bought them. I believe they retail for about $7 a piece which is not a bad deal. As with all pigments, a little truly goes a long way so these little jars could last for quite some time. Also, since they are drugstore, you will most likely be able to pick them up on sale for a BOGO1/2 at some point.

**All items were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.*

Smashbox Photo Op Eye Enhancing Palette - Brown Eyes - Photos and Swatches

I've really been loving my Smashbox Photo Op eye shadows and had been eyeing the palette they have out for brown eyes for quite some time now. I recently caved and picked it up from Sephora. The palette contains 6 shades and contains a really decent size amount of shadow. The palette retails for $42 which isn't exactly cheap, but the shades are all richly pigmented. This palette is exclusive to Sephora.

The palette is divided into 2 trios - one for a Smoky Look and one for a Soft Look.

The eyeshadows that it contains are as follows:

Marble - Silvery Taupe Shimmer

Wine - Shimmering Burgundy

Brazilian Bronze - Dark Brown with some shimmer

Vanilla - Matte buttery cream

Bark - Golden Bronze Shimmer

Navy - Matte Rich Navy Blue

From Left to Right - Vanilla, Bark, Navy, Marble, Wine, Brazilian Bronze

From Left to Right - Vanilla, Bark, Navy, Marble, Wine, Brazilian Bronze

 From Left to Right - Vanilla, Bark, Navy

From Left to Right - Marble, Wine, Brazilian Bronze

**All items were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.*