FOTD- Poisoned Purple Orchids

I looooove purple eyeshadow. I like the way it looks with my green eyes and I just like it period. I have to force myself to wear other colors but purple. And now that I think about it I have more purple nail polishes than any other color as well, although I would probably say overall my favorite color is green. Anyway, I love purple eyeshadow and my favorite purple eyeshadow of them all is Two Faced Poison Orchid (see my blog post here). As I mention in my review I never buy single eyeshadows. And if I do I don't like to spend over around $8. Although this one costs $18, it was so worth it. What color of eyeshadow do you find yourself gravitating to?

This is Poison Orchid on the lid and lower lashline, Urban Decay Fishnet in the crease, and Essence holographic eyeshadow in Mystic Purple to highlight. On my lips is L'Oreal Colour Riche Caresse lipstick in Velvety Fuchsia.

This was way more sparkly in real life, but the flash only bounced off the sparkles on the from of my lid. Dumb flash. Look at the swatch picture here to get an idea of how sparkly it really is (I used a sticky base).

L'Oreal Colour Riche Caresse lipstick in Velvety Fuchsia

And just because, here is gratuitously cute picture of my pug.

Nubar Indigo Illusion- A Hipster Duochrome

I keep promising myself I'm going to post more... and then I don't. Haha. I'm not buying as much makeup as I used to, which is good, but also means less things to swatch. Or at least that's my excuse. I still buy a crapton (an official quantifiable measurement) of nail polish though. This one just jumped into my top favorite polishes of all time.

I've always heard good things about Nubar's duochromes, which are the hipsters of the polish world (they had duochromes before they were popular), but never had bought any myself. And actually this is my first Nubar period. I think it has sparked a new addiction. Nubar's Indigo Illusion is one of those polishes every nail addict needs to own. It's one of the "I'm going to crash my car because I can't stop staring at my nails" polishes.  The color is hard to describe. It has a dusty turquoise base with tons of shimmer that changes from pinkish purple to coppery red to bright green.

Don't just take my word for it's awesomeness; have a look! This is 2 or 3 coats (I forget!) with base and top coat.

Nubar Indigo Illusion

Nubar Indigo Illusion

Nubar Indigo Illusion

Nubar Indigo Illusion

Nubar Indigo Illusion

Nubar Indigo Illusion

I plan on picking up a few more of Nubar's duochromes when I get the chance!

EOTD- Shimmering Greens

Just a quick post while I wait for the 15 layers of polish on my nails dry enough so I can go to bed. My friend Christina took it upon herself to help me out of my makeup rut and formed a little challenge for us. Each week will we give each other a look to do and hopefully it will inspire us to be more creative. For this look she challenged me to use shimmery light and dark greens with brown liner. Here is what I came up with.

This is what I used- inner corner and highlight is a light green from a wet n wild palette, the lid is e.l.f. mineral eyeshadow in Earthy, the crease is e.l.f. mineral eyeshadow in Outdoorsy, under the lower lash line is L'Oreal HiP Pigment in Intrepid, and the liner is Urban Decay Corrupt.

This was really fun to to just play with makeup again for fun instead of HAVING to wear it for work. Of course I'm behind on the most recent challenge Christina gave me, but I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with!

Foie Gras and Gold Glitter Nails

 So, nail polish. I'm still obsessed with it. And it's only been a little over four years. I am so fickle when it comes to hobbies and tend to abandon them all pretty quickly. Nail polish is the one thing I've stuck with in my life. When I think about it, it's such a funny thing to have as a hobby, but I love it. :)

This mani caused the most compliments/comments I've ever gotten on my nails. I say comments and not just compliments because there are always those people who say things like, "Wow, that sure is bright" or "That glitter really stands out" and you know they absolutely HATE what you're wearing. Haha. I don't care though; it makes me happy!

This is one coat of Sally Girl Later (gold glitter) over 2 or 3 coats (can't remember!) of China Glaze Foie Gras.

The gold glitter! It's so blinding! Seriously though, if you have a Sally Beauty Supply near you, you need to pick up this little guy. Yes, the bottle is TINY, but at only 99 cents it's affordable to get an extra bottle or two. Or three. And this was only ONE COAT of the glitter. No fishing around for glitter or dabbing the glitter on for this one.

Estee Lauder Violet Underground Palette Swatches and Review

This was my first high end makeup purchase in a loooooong time. I'll tell you how much I wanted this palette. I currently work at an Estee Lauder counter, but since the store I work at isn't Nordstrom (the Violet Underground collection is exclusive to Nordstrom and the Estee Lauder website) I actually bought it at a counter that wasn't my own and WITHOUT my employee discount. *GASP* Haha. At least I can say I was a fan of Estee Lauder before my job and still am that much of a fan I go out of my way to buy the products.

This will be my longest and most pic-heavy post in awhile so lets get right to it.

Estee Lauder Violet Underground Palette

 While I am more than happy with my purchase and the value I got for my money, I just noticed that a year and a half ago (January 2011) the 5 pan palettes were only $42. Then they jumped to $45 and now to $48. A $6 price increase in 2 years seems like a lot to me.

Estee Lauder Violet Underground Palette

 None of the shades have names, which always bothers me for some reason! Haha. Also this palette only contains .15oz while the regular powder eyeshadow palettes contain .27oz, almost twice as much product. I would never use up a whole palette anyway, but I just wanted to note that.

Estee Lauder Violet Underground Palette

The regular 5-pan palettes are gold, while this one is a blackened violet purple. And yes, I did set my palette in the grass to take this picture. ;)

Estee Lauder Violet Underground Palette

I don't think the colors in the palette are the most intuitive and easy to figure out as far as where to wear them on your eyes, but I think they are bold, edgy, fun, and a departure from what many expect from Estee Lauder. I knew from the first promo image I would have to have this palette even though I rarely buy anything without seeing many reviews first.

This palette has gelee eyeshadows instead of the regular powder ones. The texture is still a powder, but similar to Armani's Eyes To Kill or L'Oreal's Infallible shadows. According to Estee Lauder it is supposed to be a combination of a gel, powder, and liquid. I really like this eyeshadow formula. (Side Note- If anyone has one of the Bronze Sands palettes from Estee Lauder they aren't using I would totally buy it from you. It was LE and also the gelee formula and I'm so sad I missed it.)

Estee Lauder Violet Underground Palette swatches

 These are swatched dry over bare skin. They're smooth, nuanced, and not patchy in the least.

Estee Lauder Violet Underground Palette swatches

These are swatched dry over a sticky base. The highlight shade is absolutely gorgeous. I try to go through and pick my favorite color and it changes every time. Even the black is smooth and pigmented.

Estee Lauder Violet Underground Palette swatches

Here is a comparison between the two swatch types.

My one caveat is that I think you need primer as I noticed a little bit of fading when testing on my eye without primer. And I think the shadows apply and look better being patted on versus roughly sweeped across the lids due to the texture. They apply beautifully wet and over a sticky base as just using them dry tends to cause a little fallout. But after applying there is no fallout throughout the day like you would get from glittery shadows.

This palette may seem intimidating, but I actually think it's pretty versatile. Used dry (I always wear primer) the colors are softer and even the bold pink is surprisingly wearable. The picture above is just the shadows over primer (Too Faced Shadow Insurance).

For a bolder look you can use the shadows wet or put them over a sticky base. I used a sticky base for the look above (LA Splash Eyeshadow Sealer/Base). This picture is a little washed out by the flash (you can tell by how much lighter my skin looks here than the above picture) but the colors really were a lot more vibrant applied this way.

Here is my whole face using the softer eye look.


So what do you guys think? Kind of a bold showing for Estee Lauder, hmm? I like this new direction the color cosmetics for the brand seem to be moving (Thanks to Tom Pecheux!). I'm more of an eyeshadow girl, but the purple lipstick and gloss from the collection are really tempting me...

July 2012 Birchbox

Okay, this is really late seeing as it's already August. But this was my second month receiving Birchbox and I was extremely happy with my $10 this month. Birchbox is perfect for me. It seems like it is the most consistent as far as the quality of products you receive and at $10 a month you aren't out a lot of money. I love surprises and getting mail so the anticipation of opening the box is almost worth the $10 itself. Plus I like trying products that I never would have thought to buy on my own. Plus, I want to get enough boxes so I can make this, haha.

Here is a list of what was in my box. Instead of the mints they sent me some granola bar thing.

Okay, the Eyeko eyeliner is amazing. It love it so much and it's PURPLE. It's full size and costs $15 on it's own so just that by itself made the box worth it. I love the mini Color Club nail polish also! I usually think of perfume samples as throw away items but I actually really loved this month's and am considering buying it.

I love how much care they take in packaging each box.

If you aren't already subscribed to Birchbox, you can use my link here (referral link). It's worth trying for at least a month to see if you like it. Also, with every purchase you make from the Birchbox website (including the Birchbox itself), referring friends to join, and reviewing the products you received in your box you get points. With every 100 points you get $10 to spend in the store. I already have 110 points and I'm eying the Birchbox exclusive Zoya Blogger set!