Tarina Tarantino Emerald Pretty Eyeshadow Palette Swatches and Review

I bought this palette along with a few other Tarina Tarantino items when I first found out that they were 40% off. This palette had been on my wishlist since I saw Phyrra and Temptalia post about it. For $36 I was never quite willing to pull the trigger. But for $22, there were no second guesses.

I don’t know if the quality of the shadows in this palette is indicative of Tarina Tarantino’s shadows across the board, but I certainly hope so as these are AMAZING. I think I may like the formula better even than Urban Decay’s. The shadows, even the matte brown, are smooth, almost buttery but not too soft that they're powdery, and uber pigmented. There is no fallout and they apply easily and exactly where you want them to go. I know it is a bit of a cliché to say something practically applies itself, but that definitely fits here.

Tarina Tarantino Emerald Pretty Eyeshadow Palette

Tarina Tarantino Emerald Pretty Eyeshadow Palette

 I know quite a few people have complained about it, but this palette is HUGE. Here is is compared to my hand and I have quite large hands.

Tarina Tarantino Emerald Pretty Eyeshadow Palette

This was taken indoors with the flash so the colors are a little washed out.

Tarina Tarantino Emerald Pretty Eyeshadow Palette

This was taken in weak sunlight.

Tarina Tarantino Emerald Pretty Eyeshadow Palette

The swatches are dry over bare skin. You can see how nicely they apply just in the swatches. My swatches are usually incredibly messy and these are smooth and even. They may not be the most unique colors, but they are really pretty and the formula is amazing.

I think I used all the shadows but the matte brown here. The eyeliner is MAC Undercurrant.

I HIGHLY recommend this palette. The colors are beautiful, work well together, and the formula is one of the best, if not THE best I have ever used. You would be doing yourself a disservice not to purchase this palette. As of right now it is still available on Sephora’s website, but I’m not sure for how much longer. So don’t wait!

Tarina Tarantino Dollskin Cheek Palette Swatches and Review

Being the huge blush fanatic that I am, I craved Tarina Tarantino’s Dollskin Cheek Palette from the moment I saw it. And then the overwhelming positive reviews came pouring in. I was *this close* to ordering it from Sephora many times, but never ended up pulling the trigger. And then I found out that Tarina Tarantino was being phased out at Sephora and was selling for 40% off. There were many items I wanted (and ended up ordering!) but this blush palette was listed as sold out at the time. I was crushed. But undeterred I checked Sephora daily to see if it would come back in stock. And it did. I was ecstatic. Okay, I know how ridiculous it sounds to be ecstatic over blush, but if you’re a fellow makeup addict (and if you’re reading this I’m assuming you are), you’ll understand. (Of course, as of writing this post the blush palette is no longer listed. But keep checking, it might come back! I do see it listed on Amazon for $32, which I definitely think is worth it. Still cheaper than it originally was!)

The palette definitely lived up to the hype for me. I LOVE it.


The palette comes in a grey and pink box inside a holographic sleeve. It's pretty, but I definitely think it's a little over-packaged.

Tarina Tarantino Dollskin Cheek Palette

Tarina Tarantino Dollskin Cheek Palette

The palette is HUGE. I was expecting the blush pans to be about eyeshadow size, but they look amost like full size blushes to me. I compared the size to a Zoya nail polish bottle so you can see how big it really is.

Tarina Tarantino Dollskin Cheek Palette

There are two peachy-coral blushes and two bright bubblegum pink blushes. I wish the names of the blushes were listed somewhere on the palette. The blush colors are/were also sold individual so names would be helpful.

Feather (the top left) is a peach coral shimmer. Parasol (the top right) is a bright pink coral simmer. Carved Rose (the bottom left) is a bright pink matte. Candy Cameo (the bottom left) is almost the same color as Carved Rose, but has heavy silver shimmer. This is definitely the most shimmery of the blushes.

I almost wish they had left out Candy Cameo (I can just wear a highlighter over the matte pink if I want shimmer) and chose one of their other blushes, like Neapolitan Lane or Charm.

From left- Feather, Parasol, Carved Rose, and Candy Cameo

For each color the swatches are applied heavily on the left and blended out on the right.

The formula on all of them is pigmented, soft but not powdery, and easy to blend.

From left- Feather and Parasol

From left- Carved Rose and Candy Cameo

I recommend this palette to those who are blush obsessed and those who aren't. There is a variety of colors and finishes in this palette that will keep you from getting bored. I'm so glad I was finally able to get this!

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...

Quick Review: Sleek's Curacao Palette from the Caribbean Collection

I won this palette from a giveaway from the fabulous Robyn. Unfortunately the asshole postal service here decimated my package and this palette was one of two things that made it all the way from England. (When i called to complain they actually said that they would look for my items. Yes, good luck finding a tube of lipstick somewhere in between here and England.)

Sleek Curacao palette

Sleek Curacao palette

Sleek Curacao palette

Sleek Curacao palette

I love the colors in this palette. I have one other Sleek palette, Paraguaya, and that one is mostly oranges and pinks, so it was nice to have one with some variety. There is also a good mix of mattes and shimmers, although a few of the mattes are a little sheer and one is downright terrible (you'll see).

Top row

All of these applies pretty well. The light blue matte applied the best, but the other two mattes weren't bad.  As I noticed with my first Sleek palette the textures are really soft (almost to their detriment sometimes) and pretty pigmented.

Bottom row

The shimmers all applied beautifully, as did the bright blue matte. The purple was hard and sheer, while the black was well... look at it. Not so good. But I don't care because the rest of the palette is amazing. Thank you so much fabulous, wonderful, gorgeous Robyn for sending it to me!


Available:

• Those of us in the US can buy Sleek directly from their website. This palette retails for $10.50

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Palette Swatches and Review

So, I figured out why I was so tired yesterday! After sleeping for 16 hours straight (seriously), I woke up sick. Yay for having the crappiest immune system ever. the worst thing about being sick is having to go about your regular responsibilities anyway, even when all you want to do is hide under the covers. Sometimes I wonder why I signed up for this "being an adult" crap anyway. Hmm, it's still not too late to move back home!

Anyway, in addition to being sick, I'm a bad girl. I spend entirely too much money. I hated having to hide things I bought from my boyfriend and being ashamed because I really shouldn't have bought them. I wasn't making us go into debt or anything, but I recognize it could have got that bad if I let myself continue to spiral out of control. I still have a few orders still in in bubble mailers I haven't even opened that I received a month ago or so. That is when you know you have a problem. I'm terrible at self-control, but it's time I sucked it up and learned. Now where did I leave my big girl panties?

I know I'm a bad girl, but I'm glad I was able to sneak in Urban Decay's 15th Anniversary palette before I decided to clean up my act. It's absolutely gorgeous. I know everyone has seen a million and a half pictures of this by now, but I don't care. I'm pretty sure you need it.

I had the most ridiculous time taking pictures of this palette. It is so shiny and reflective it made good pictures impossible. I think I need a better camera!

It also attracts fingerprints. They magically appear if you even THINK about touching it. The palette comes in a pretty purple velvet box that I couldn't bring myself to throw away, and I'm not usually so sentimental about packaging.

Here is the whole shebang disassembled. The actual eyeshadow part sits in a little square that is shiny purple on the outside and lined with more of the purple velvety stuff on the inside. The top silver part with the "jewelled" UD initials fits over this part. This a large mirror on the inside of the lid.

This isn't a small palette by any means, but still probably smaller than 15 single eyeshadows (and cheaper, too!)

This picture was taken in the sun. Unfortunately this was the only sun picture I could get before the sun decided to be an asshole and hide behind the clouds. Or was it that the clouds were assholes and hid the sun? I'm not sure, but someone was definitely an asshole.

I swatched these as how they are grouped in columns.

Group 1 (1st column): Midnight Rodeo, Midnight 15, Vanilla, flow, Chase
Group 2 (2nd column): Tainted, Junkshow, Omen, Evidence, Deep End
Group 3 (3rd column): Deeper, M.I.A., Ace, Blackout, Half Truth

This was taken inside with the flash.

Urban Decay makes some of the best eyeshadows on the market and their palettes are usually "must buy"s for people. Urban Decay is also known for ruining perfectly good eyeshadows by sticking them full of craft glitter. Okay, I might be exaggerating the craft glitter bit, but I'm sure you guys know what I mean. Due to the fallout, it makes these color unusable for me, even if I used a sticky base. Luckily I haven't had an issues with  huge chunky glitter from this palette. Midnight Rodeo was the only one with the larger glitter, but I didn't have any problems when wearing it.

This palette is awesome because of it's huge range of colors. There are a good amount of neutrals, brights, and darker shades. I do wish they had taken out one of the neutrals and had a green shade though.

From left- Midnight Rodeo, Midnight 15, Vanilla, flow, Chase

From left- Tainted, Junkshow, Omen, Evidence, Deep End

From left- Deeper, M.I.A., Ace, Blackout, Half Truth

Like most matte blacks, Blackout was patchy, sheer, and a bit hard to work with. It wasn't the worst matte black I've used, however.

Look, look! I found dupes! Well, not perfect dupes, but pretty damn close. The two outer colors are from Wet n Wild's Blue Had Me At Hello palette (which I've reviewed here) and the inner two are from Urban Decay's 15 Anniversary palette. The WnW teal is a tad lighter and more green than Urban Decay's Deep End, and UD's Evidence has a slightly brighter blue sheen than the one from WnW, but I bet you would not be able to tell when worn on the eye. Also, the dark blue from Wet n wild was a bit more pigmented than Evidence.

Yay for dupes!

If you can still find this palette I highly recommend it. It is my favorite palette from Urban Decay either. I was impressed with swatches of the upcoming Book of Shadows palette and I'm glad I didn't pass up this one to get it!

Available:

• Retails for $55 and can be found on Urban Decay's website. I've also seen this in Ulta and Sephora stores recently.

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

LORAC TANtalEYES Palette Swatches

Here is a quick review of LORAC's TANtalEYES palette. Of course, being the terrible procrastinator that I am, I'm posting this when most retailers don't even have it in stock any more. If you're going to buy it (and you should because it's awesome!) I highly recommend you buy it from BeautyBar.com. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just got some amazing customer service from them. Check my post from yesterday to read about it!

This normally comes as a set with a tube of shimmery bronzing stuff, but I like being pale so I gave it away.

Ooooh, look at the shiny! The outer packaging is really cool, it's gold rainbow-y at the same time. It's a tad bulky for an eyeshadow quad, but not too bad.

It's even pretty on the inside! The eyeshadows are baked and come in the little dome form typical of baked makeup.

The shadows themselves are insanely soft and pigmented. These may be the best formula of eyeshadow i have ever used. The colors themselves are a little warm-toned for my liking, but the formula is just so freaking amazing I had to have it. This is just one swipe. Usually I have to go over a swatch several times to get it the size I want, but just a tiny bit when a long way. These aren't powdery at all, but buttery, smooth, and pigmented. LOVE.

Baked shadows are notorious for being sheer and difficult to work with, and these may be the exception as they are a far cry from sheer and difficult to work with.

This was my first look I did with this palette.

And the second look.



I love, love, love this formula and I wonder if LORAC's other baked shadows are just as good...


Pros:

• Extremely pigmented
• Soft, buttery smooth texture
• Blend well
• No fallout

 Cons:

•  $36 is a bit high for an eyeshadow quad

Available:

• Retails for $36 and can be found on LORAC's website and BeautyBar.com

Thanks you reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Wet n Wild Petal Pusher Palette Swatches and Review

Recently Wet n Wild sent me the 3 8-pan palettes to review. Well, not recently, more like 3 months ago. My excuse for waiting this long- "But, but, but, I've been busy." I've previously reviewed the blue palette, Blue Had Me at Hello, and still need to review the Comfort Zone one. This review is for the purple one, Petal Pusher.

The packaing is a bit spare. For the price of the palette it is understandable that you aren't going to get the fanciest packaging, but I wish it protected the eyeshadows a bit better. I've seen numerous palettes with broken shadows at drugstores from people dropping them.  I like that the palettes are sealed when so much drugstore makeup is not (which is kind of gross). I like the size of the palette, too. It is compact, which I appreciate because I'm running out of room to store all my makeup!

While most of us probably don't need the color placement suggestions on the back, I think it is nice though. I certainly would have appreciated it before I became obsessed with makeup because I used to have no idea people even wore more than one eyeshadow on their eyes at a time.

I do wish the shades had names, just to make them easier to refer to, but the numbering system I used above works pretty well.

1- Shimmery white a bit on the sheer side (which actually makes it good as a highlighter)
2- Light lilac satin shimmer
3- Darkened purple shimmer
4- Medium purple shimmer, almost metallic, with silver flecks

5- Frosty light purple-pink
6- Red plum with gold shimmer
7- Black base with pink sparkles
8- Matte black with silver sparkles

I think Wet n Wild needs to work on the black eyeshadow formula, but I find that a lot of black shadows have issues with chalkiness or patchiness. I like that there are less matte black shades in this palette than the blue palette.

The swatches are numbered the same as above. They are all swatched dry on bare skin.

I really like all of the colors in this palette. Number 6 didn't look that great in the swatch, but it looks awesome on the eye over primer.  Most of these, besides #1 and the last 2 blackened shades were really pigmented. And I don't mind #1 being on the sheer side as that means it works better as a highlighter. I think all the colors look really great together, even #6, which sticks out a bit in the swatches.

The first column of shadows.

The second column of shadows.

I used most of the colors in the palette to create this look, besides the last matte black. I'll show what colors I used where in the last picture.

I love the way this came out. I find that the eyeshadow are very easy to work with. One of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to eyeshadow is blending, and these shadows make it easy for me. I don't have an issue with these blending too much and muddying up like some people have reported, I think mainly because I use these over a sticky base.

Pros:

• Mostly great pigmentation
• Soft and easy to blend
• Vibrant colors
• Very inexpensive
• All the colors work well together

Cons:

• The packing doesn't protect the shadows as well as I would prefer
• The black shades tend to be on the drier/patchy side
• These aren't easy to find for those outside the U.S.

Wet n Wild should be proud of the quality of product they are putting out. And I think they are making a statement to the drugstore makeup world. Just because something is inexpensive doesn't mean it has to be inferior quality. The other drugstore cosmetic companies need to raise their standards if they are to compete with Wet n Wild, which means better makeup for us!

Available:

• The 8-pan palettes retail for $4.99 and can be found at Walmart, Walgreens, and some CVS stores.

Thank you for reading and have a great day/night/whatever!

Disclosure: I was this this for review purposes by Wet n Wild. As always all opinions are completely my own.