Review: Revlon Custom Eyes in 02 Naturally Glamorous (Go Buy This!)

Before I even start this review, get thee down to CVS stat and pick one of these up. In most circumstances, you would want to read the review first, but let me break this down for you quickly, buttery soft, pigmented, buttery soft and cheap this week! If you need more convincing you can read the rest of the post, but let me go over the deal this week if you have a CVS near you.

Certain Revlon products this week are on sale for $6.99, get $4 Extrabucks back. This usually retails for close to $10 so it's already discounted a decent amount before the Extrabucks.

Then the magic red coupon machine of awesome is spitting out a $3 off $10 cosmetic purchase, be sure to go to this machine before you make your purchase, and grab something cheap (like a clearance item to bring your total to $10).

And if you get the Sunday paper, there have recently been $1 off Revlon products. Make sure to bring one with you.

Basically, you are going to get this item for close to nothing and it is awesome.

Cut to "official" review
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The new Revlon CustomEyes comes in several different color combinations (some brights as well) and they usually retail for $9-$10. These are brand new Revlon products so they probably aren't going to be in the regular Revlon display, but will have a separate cardboard stand. Mine also had the new mascara that I forget the name of. Anyway, I picked up the neutral bronzey quint, Naturally Glamorous #02. It consists of (as you guessed) bronzey and neutral shades. it's considered to be a shadow-liner type of palette, so the matte shade on the end is meant to be a liner but I'd bet it would make a great crease color as well.

The palette includes a diagram on the back to recreate the look for this palette. Honestly, I'm not one to use 5 different shades for one eye look so I'd probably do something a bit different but it's up to you. The palette contains a good 5.67 grams of product and thank goodness, Revlon obviously listened or read when we say time and time again that packaging matters! Now, the plastic itself is pretty plain but the design on the shadows is gorgeous and reminds of the Global Goddess line, specifically the quads which retail for a staggering $42.

But you don't care about the packaging! You care about the product. Ok, maybe you care about the packaging a little bit.

One swipe! One swipe! Super soft buttery shadows at a drugstore price with pretty indentation! The only one that didn't perform as well was the matte liner shade, but seriously, it's still dark and is pretty soft. The other shades are just velvety smooth and absolutely lovely.

It comes with a double side sponge tip applicator as well which half of you probably won't even touch. Obviously I haven't worn these so I can't comment on wear time but I was so shocked with how soft and lovely they were that I wanted to get this post up asap so everyone can go grab these with the sale!

The verdict? Go buy this!

Channeling Too Faced II

The next palette in the Dollar Tree Too Faced look a likes is this smoky eye palette and as all Dollar Tree items go, this was only $1!

This palette is my favorite of the two as there are a couple gorgeous taupey shades and this runs more cool than the Natural one.

One again, what appears to be silver shimmer is just overspray.

The shades in this palette are gorgeous! The formulation of the eyeshadows in this palette are slightly harder and less powdery but still very pigmented. These swatches were done (as usual) without a base.

The shades actually look better when swatched in my opinion than in the pan. We have a medium toned brown that borders slightly more bronzey with a bit of silver in it, a silvery taupe, a gorgeous dark olive green which looked nearly black in the pan, a dark black grey, a silver and a blackened taupe/brown. Gorgeous shades!

All in all, I'm really impressed by these though I haven't worn them on the eyes yet. Just from swatches them, I think the texture will work well and I don't tend to have a problem with eyeshadow not lasting on my normal to dry lids. I would pick these up if you see them, they are after all only a bucks!


Have you seen these at your local Dollar Tree?

Channeling Too Faced

I was in another part of town going to an allergy doctor (by the way apparently it is possible that I am not allergic to anything yet I have all the symptoms of allergies all year long - lucky me, right?). Anyway, this particular area has a Dollar Tree as well as a Big Lots, discount shopping heaven I tell you!

I obviously walked down the cosmetic aisle and found these.

Remind you of anything? How about these from Too Faced?

 

Something tells me the shades aren't exactly the same and I don't own the Too Faced palettes to compare (not withstanding the fact the palettes don't look the same at all, just the pictures used). However, for $1 a piece, I thought I'd at least give them a shot. The brand is called Almar and it looks like they produce a lot of off-brand products but I haven't heard of them before.

The palette includes 3 warmer shades (top) and 3 cooler shades (bottom), each looks like it is glitter city, but the silvery pigment is actually over spray.

You can kind of see the colors better after I swatched them.

In this palette we have a peachy coppery shade, a gold, a buttery yellow highlighting shade, a bronzey brown shade, a taupe and a slightly lighter bronzey brown shade. 

I'm actually really impressed with these. The shadows are buttery soft, highly pigmented and are a softer metallic (if that makes sense). All swatches were done without a base. My only complaint is they are a bit powdery but other than that definitely worth $1! I'll be swatching and posting the shades from the Smoky kit shortly.

Have you seen these at your local Dollar Tree?

Review: Sleek Palettes

I've been meaning to do this review forever. I've had these palettes for quite awhile, but I hadn't had the proper chance to play with them and share my thoughts. Today I woke up feeling awful, so after letting my boss know I wouldn't be in and sleeping for a total of 15 (!) hours, I decided to actually get something accomplished, other than lounging around the house and watching tv in my PJs.

Sleek palettes have been taking the blogging world by storm. For the price £5.00 or around $10 USD they are inexpensive palettes with an array of color choices. After a few infamous bloggers and you-tubers sang their praises, everyone has been trying to get their hands on them.

I ordered my 3 Sleek palettes from glamr.co.uk/shop and they arrived quickly and wrapped well. For the 3 including shipping to the US, the cost was only about $33, each palette is £5.00 and then shipping is an additional £5.00. Obviously, if you were to order it would depend entirely on the current exchange rate.

 

The palettes come in fairly flimsy plastic boxes, but the actual packaging is quite sturdy. I was honestly a bit surprised at the size of them. Each is a little black compact, with Sleek somewhat etched into the top (it may be a sticker but it doesn't come off easily). 

The back of each palette indicates which one it is, along with the ingredient list, size and the website for the brand. Each individual shadow is 1.1gram and there are 12 in each so we're looking at about 13 grams of product which is quite generous for the price.

Here is the original palette compared to a MAC 4pan. As you can see, the individual pans in each of the palettes is quite small, but definitely big enough to properly pick up color.

 

Here they are all lined up. Aren't they pretty? From the left we have Chaos (all matte), Original and Safari. The Original and Safari palettes have mostly pearl shades and a few odd matte colors.

I'm not going to swatch all three palettes as there are plenty of swatches out there, however, I am going to swatch a few of the shades so you can get an idea of the color payoff and how the shades perform. First, here are a few swatches of the Safari palette.

These are the first 3 in the top row. As you can tell from the top palette pictures, these shadows are quite crumbly, and that's really my only complaint about them. They are quite pigmented and soft and are easily picked up with a brush or the included sponge-tip applicator, but you can't apply too much pressure on the shades or else they will crumble. I'm fairly surprised that the palettes made their way across the ocean with no causalities. The black in this palette is one of the matte shades and I believe there is a black matte shade in nearly every palette that Sleek makes, maybe provided as a liner?

 

  

Next are the top 3 shades in the Chaos (matte) palette. As you can see, these are also fairly pigmented, though they don't have quite as much payoff as the pearl shades. And they don't have that great sheen that the pearl shades have, but they are quite nice especially if you shy away from frosty colors. Now, I don't know about you, but I never used bright pink on my lids (the 1st color), so I did some experimenting. What I found out? This color makes a beautiful lip and cheek color!

I took a bit of clear gloss and put a little on my hand and then picked up some of the pink color from the Chaos palette with a clean lip brush.

Then I mixed it up, adding a bit more of the pink color as necessary till I got the depth of color that I wanted.

 

And then I applied that to my lips with a lip brush.

Not too bad! I kind of like it. Please excuse my skin. I'm not wearing any foundation and I didn't prep my lips with some balm first.

I also think the eyeshadow would look great as a blush, so I sheered it out a bit on my hand...

 

So all in all, I do really like these palettes. My only complaint is that the shadows are a bit powdery but that only lends itself to being a bit creative and seeking out new ways to use colors you wouldn't ordinarily use. I went ahead and ordered a few of the other palettes available recently and I should get them soon, but of course like everyone, I am dying for the Graphite palette which was limited edition. Wish I would have discovered these sooner when it was still widely available (and not a rip off on Ebay!).

Ingredients (from Original): Mica, Talc, Kaolin, Magnesium, Stearate, Dimethicone, Paraffinum Liquid, Ethylhexyl, Palmitate, Propylparaben, Methylparaben

Review: Wet n Wild Color Icon Vanity #249

As promised, I have my first set of reviews for the Wet n Wild I hauled earlier this week. First the Color Icon palettes. I'm only going to be reviewing one for now: Vanity #249 (far left below).

 

I'm fairly impressed with the packaging Wet n Wild has put together for these palettes. They have a history of making quite bulky palettes. Namely the Ultimate Expressions (which according to sources is getting discontinued) palettes. Large, unwieldy with a pull out mirror on the bottom? Even though we ultimately "lose" 2 shades, I much prefer the slim new Color Icons.

 

Much much much easier to fit into my overflowing packed excellent selection of an eyeshadow palette drawer! These new palette contain 3 matte shades and 3 'effect' shades. Now a word about the 'effect' shades. In this particular palette, they are metallic but have no visible and/or chunky glitter. In the other 2 palettes I hauled, there is one 'effect' shade in each palette which obviously has glitter. 

Each palette has an example look on the back. Unfortunately, I hope buyers of this palette don't follow this one, because the line for the brow bone is quite low and appears to be closer to the crease? And the eyelid line is point towards the actual eye itself! Oops.

 

 

These probably look the same to you but since they are at slightly different angles, I thought I would include them both. Obviously the matte shades are on top and the 'effect' shades are on the bottom. I actually applied all of these shades with the included brush! I did not use a sponge applicator (which tends to give the most color pay off). This is on my hand, with no primer or anything. I was quite impressed with the pigmentation of these shadows, especially the 'effect' shades. Though they are a touch warmer than I usually wear, they are shimmery, non glittery metallic shades that would probably suit many and they are not crumbly or powdery, just soft enough to pick up the pigment. 

My only complaint is that the matte shades are a touch powdery. There is a bit of powder that is left on the eyeshadow itself after you pick it up from the brush and then it goes on a bit less smoother than the shimmer shades (if you enlarge the picture below, it's especially apparent on the darkest matte shade). Of course, some of my favorite high end brands do this as well (Stila is perhaps the worst offender but I love the brand anyway) and for the price (only $4.99 compared to upwards of $20 for 1 shade??!), I am not complaining. 

Have you tried one of the new Color Icon palettes? What did you think?

Review: Missha Easy Styling Makeup Kit in Smoky Contrast #1

I'd been meaning to post the review for this kit. I bought this kit when I ordered the sample set a few months ago. The Easy Styling kits come in 3 variations and retail for $24.99. Each comes with 2 lip products, a cream shadow and an eyeshadow duo.

 

The packaging is awesome. The above picture is just the box (flash). Yes, the box is a holo.

 

no flash

compact on top of box

 

  

Oh, wait! You don't care how pretty the packaging is? You want to know if the products are good? Well if you've been reading the blog awhile, you know that I am not a fan of cream products in the same palette as powder ones. However, I do like all the products in this palette, even the cream eyeshadow (which looks black even though it's blue with shimmer)! I know, it's insane. On first touch it feels kind of oily but it does set.

The lip products are ones you would imagine being in a smokey eye palette. They are both peachy nude shades and both fairly sheer yet can be built up and they have no obnoxious glitter or shimmer - one is a bit more glossy (#1) and one is more matte (#2). They feel very nice between the lips and have no smell or taste.

 

Here is a better view of the lip products and the cream eyeshadow (on top you can see a bit of the shimmer in the cream shadow).

And I mentioned that the cream eyeshadow actually sets. This was after I rubbed my finger over it. The shimmer shifted but I was pleasantly surprised.

And here's after I tried washing it all off with water...

 

So am I glad I picked this up? Yes. Would I usually pick out a palette with cream and powder? No. 

Love the blingtastic packaging though. Is bligtastic a word? No. Do I care? No!

Stars Makeup Haven Haul & A Surprise

About a week ago, a reader of mine sent me the absolute sweetest e-mail. I started this blog mainly for myself but in time, I've wanted to give back and write content that just didn't interest me but interested and helped others. Every so often, I get that pull to go work at a counter or store but because of my full-time jobs and graduate school, I never last long (at one point I was working 60 hours a week and it wore me out). I just truly love helping people, and to help especially women (though men can wear makeup too, of course) realize that makeup is not as difficult as many of them think and that they can use it to enhance their own natural beauty (though covering up some flaws is helpful too). Anyway, I never expected in a million years to receive an e-mail like the one I received. And then she said she'd like to send me a gift. Well, ok!

It arrived in the mail today. I had to keep DH from attacking the yummy treats she sent from Hawaii (and a super sweet note - DH said it was one of the nicest letters he's ever read)!

Thank you for your generosity, Jasmine!

How did she know that dried mangoes (and mangoes in general were my favorite)?!

Mmmm... though I have given DH permission to eat one of these yummy chocolate treats (he almost ate them all before dinner).

Next up, among the several packages I received today (!!) - one of them was my order from starsmakeuphaven. I had been waiting for their magnetized palettes to come back in stock and managed to grab them during a promotion. I picked up 2-28 pan palettes and 3 eyeshadow pans. Well, I open up my package to find they included 4 eyeshadow pans! A full-sized extra! I had been wanting to try their eyeshadows ever since Karla swatched them all; but I really didn't need to order every one I had my eye on (even at $4.95 a pop they add up quick).

Here they are already in their new home:

Can you tell which one was free? Hmm... neutral, neutral, neutral, blue? Duck duck duck duck gooose!

Something old. Something new. Something borrowed... Something Blue! Cute name. Not sure if I'll ever wear this color. It is way brighter than I would ever think of wearing but it's highly pigmented and silky smooth.

And the three colors I actually purchased. I know many of you are looking at them and thinking, "ummm, they all look the same". Not true! Cashmere is a taupey brown that has a touch of bronze to it (though it looks a lot warmer in the pan than swatched), Frenzy is what I would call a neutral taupe (though it may pull a touch warmer), and Breathless is a cooler taupe with a bit more silver to it. All of them are beautiful shades and I'm glad I bought them. For $4.95 I could have done a lot worse. And of course now I can fit 28 shades a piece into these magnetized palettes which are about the same price as their 12-pan MAC counterparts (though the plastic is a bit thinner). The palettes were $13.95 before the discount. All in all I'm very pleased with my order and Stars Makeup Haven's generosity.

Wet N Wild Holiday

There has been a lot of buzz regarding Wet N Wild Holiday palettes. I've been stalking my local CVS but finally found them at the CVS near where I work. I picked these up prior to Thanksgiving when the display was full and went back after the holiday to find them completely gone, including the display itself! Why was I looking for them again after purchasing them? Well... look

Well, before I go into the ... minor issue - here are the two palettes: Naughty & Nice. You know what I love about these holiday palettes? The lipgloss is in a separate tube and there are only powder products next to each other! More companies should follow suit! They retail for $6.99 and come in a fairly sturdy plastic box with a hinge and a cute design on the tops. For reference, Nice is the Gold one and Naughty is Silver. They each come with a $1 off coupon tucked under the powder. This is also where the applicators are, but I generally find those useless and toss 'em.

Ok, well, when I bought mine, there were $1 off coupon in the regular Wet N Wild display, so I only wound up paying $5.99 per each. A pretty sweet deal if I do say so myself.

I didn't wind up opening them until I got back from Georgia and found (here is the Nice palette)...

Do you see it?

Do you see it now?

Yes! The two lower left trios are exactly the same! Well, I was kind of shocked and quickly ran back to the store only to find them sold out. Last night as I attempted to refill a prescription, I found some more! So I ran to my car, grabbed a coupon and ran back in to grab the very last Nice palette!

Ahhhhh... much better.

I also picked up a few other things - 2 bottles of Sinful nail polish (at $1.99 a pop why not?) and this strange cream near the pharmacy. I'm not a scientist but it appears to be fancy smelling petroleum jelly (it smells like apples, yum) and it was $1.29.

w/flash: San Francisco & Rich in Heart

 

Apple Essence from Mexico! Surely, this won't kill me, right? I mean CVS carries it! It smells yummy. I'll probably use it as lip stuff.

So all in all, everything turned out to be A-OK. I think I may return the extra "faulty" palette. We'll see if I ever get around to it or remember to bring it with me when I leave the house.