Sunday, December 9, 2012

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.**

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

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.**

Sunday, December 2, 2012

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.**