Search This Blog

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit - Swatches and Review



I received this contour kit as a Christmas present and was pretty excited because it has gotten so many rave reviews on the internet. I have been using it since then so I am ready to give you my complete review.

Packaging

  • solid cardboard with magnetic closure. I find that the size is good, it's not too large or small. There's a couple things, I don't like about the packaging is that it gets dirty very easily. As I use my hand to apply makeup and then grab the contour kit, the makeup on my hand gets transferred on the packaging all the time. The second thing that bothered me about the packaging is that the shade color/name is not listed on the front of the packaging but it is on the back of each pan. I, later realized that the reason for that is because this can be a customizeable palette. 
  • This palette doesn't include a mirror. Even though, I normally use a separate mirror to apply my makeup, I always like to have a mirror with my palette, just in case I don't feel like looking at my other mirror or take it with me when I travel. 
  • The palette contains 6 different shades of .11 oz or 3 g each. You could easily take out each pan because they are magnetically attached to the palette and you purchase a refill or different color if you wish. However, I think the refill is only available on Anastasia Beverly Hills website for $14 each. There is a lot more shades available on her website.




Vanilla, Banana, Sand

Product

  • Vanilla is a matte pale nude with pink undertone. I don't reach for this one much but when I do, I use it to set my foundation, lol. I use it sparingly to set my foundation and it looks translucent, doesn't alter the color of my foundation. Well it works for me that way since I focus a bit more on the contouring rather than highlighting. It has a soft velvety texture, which I like. If you are light and fair, like myself, you'll find that this blends in with your skin color, thus you're not really getting a highlighting effect out of it.
  • Banana is a matte pale nude with yellow undertone. I typically use this one to set my under eye concealer, if I remember to use it that is since I tend to skip the under eye concealer concealer 90% of the time. This one also has a soft velvety texture. 
  • Sand is a pearly highlighting shimmer with a pink undertone. The shimmer is very subtle. Eh to be honestly, I wasn't really blown away by this one. It's really underwhelming and boring, especially if you have other prettier highlighters in your collection.  


Java, Fawn, Havana


  • Java is a medium warm matte powder. It works for my skin tone if I want to warm it up.  
  • Fawn is a medium light beige with cool undertone. I find this shade ideal for nose contouring, as it looks more natural than the other two. I also tend to mix Fawn and Java together to contour my jawline and sides of my forehead. I think the two together is a good balance for my skin tone. Since I have neutral undertone, I don't want to go too warm or the contour might look too fake. 
  • Havana is a medium warm matte powder, very similar to Java but a tab bit warmer. I don't use this one as much but it doesn't look too bad, although again, I would prefer to swirl this one with Fawn to neutralize some of that warmth. 
  • I found the contour shades to be a littler drier and don't have the velvety texture like Vanilla and Banana. They are also less pigmented, which isn't really a bad thing in my opinion. It gives you a little more control over the intensity of the contour you want to achieve since you can build it up to your liking.
  • I like that the powders are easy to work with and easy to blend. I get about 6 hours of wear before I notice that the contour starts to fade.

Final Thought

I contour more than highlighting so the highlighting shades are nice to have though, I don't find them absolutely necessary or that useful to me. And if you're fair to light, you're gonna find that the highlight shades won't do much for you. The contour shades are workable, though I prefer more neutral undertone because for my face, I prefer a natural contour. I don't really care about looking like I had some sun. I am perfectly fine with my fair complexion but just want to give it more shape and dimension. To be honest, I wasn't completely blown away by this palette and I think, dare I say, it was over-hyped for what it's worth. It's not a bad palette by any means but the shade selection could've been better. It's listed as for light to medium complexion but it definitely caters more toward warm undertone complexion. I'm bummed at how similar Java and Havana look to each other. What I think they should've done with the contour shades in this palette is have one medium neutral, one medium warm, and one neutral medium dark. That way it would have catered to a larger spectrum of skin tone and undertone. With that said, you're probably not going to use or love all the shades that come with this palette. It may seem like a better idea to order from Anastasia's Beverhill's website and only get the shades that works for your skintone and undertone. The problem with that is you don't know how the colors really look like in person unless you can find all the swatches of each shades she has available, which she currently has 29 of them. 

Rating: 8/10

Price: $40.00

Do you own this palette? Do you think this palette is really worth the hype?


I Love Nail Polish Ultra Chrome Flakies - Electric Carnival and Supernova




Happy Sunday!

It's been a beautiful weekend. The weather is feeling like Spring and I find that uplifting. These new holographic flakies came out about a month ago. I wasn't in a rush to get them but I knew I was going to get at least these two. 

You can purchase them from ilnp.com for $12.50 each. The turn around time is pretty good. I think I got my order within a week from the date I ordered and everything is always carefully packaged. I just noticed that they added more colors to the Holographic flakies so I'm really tempted to get some more. 



Electric Carnival is a multichrome flakie that shifts from a golden green, magenta, and bronze. The base is clear, not too thick or thin, and the great part is that there is a whole lot of flakies in that bottle so the brush picks up a fairly good amount on the first coat. It's easy to apply and work with. Woooah look at that gorgeousness! It's mesmerizing.

On the swatches, I have 2 coats of Electric Carnival over Sparitual Endless Possibilities.






Supernova is a multichrome flakie that shifts color from teal to magenta. I thought the name was really cool. Then again ILNP always has cool names for their polishes. The formula is pretty much the same as Electric Carnival. 

I only did one coat this time over Sparitual Undercurrent. On some of the swatches that I googled online, if you layer this completely over the nail, you can get a holographic foil look. 

What do you think of these flakies? 







Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Urban Decay Electric Palette Makeup Look #4



Wow, 4 looks in a row...Something I've never done before but I hope you guys enjoyed. This is probably my favorite looks out of them 4. It was fun coming out with all these looks and I hope I can keep this up and create more on my next weekend. Which one was your favorite Electric palette looks?






Product Used

Face
Eyes
  • To start, I used theBalm Put A Lid on It eyeshadow primer
  • With a pencil brush I created a cut crease with Urban (the purple color) and with a fluffy brush I blended it out. 
  • I wet my brush with Missha The Style Magic Eye Change and dab it into Revolt, which is the shimmery silver color, and applied it over the lids.
  • I lined the upper lash line with Urban Decay 24/7 liquid eyeliner in Perversion
  • I lined the waterline with Marc Jacobs Highliner Gel Crayon Blacquer
  • I used a black eyeshadow to smudge a bit on the lower lash line. 
  • I dabbed a liner brush into the Missha The Style Magic Eye Change and Savage (the pink eyeshadow) and created a winged liner from the lower lash line and up and added some of the pink color on the lower inner lash line as well.
  • At the tail end of the eyeliners, between the black and pink lines, I used a silver eyeliner to fill in that area.
  • On the brow bone, I applied Transforming Pearl from the IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty palette.
  • I applied NYX Tame & Frame tinted brow pomade in Brunette and NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder Dark Brown on my eyebrows.
  • For the lashes, I went pretty dramatic with Fright Night Mesmerizing pairs but I only used the top lashes. They were a little too thick and long for my liking but I love how fluttery they look and how they fan out at the outer corners. 
Lips
  • NYX Wicked Lippie Cold Hearted
  • I used a brush and applied Urban from the Electric palette over the grey lipstick and I really liked how it turned out





Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Urban Decay Electric Palette Makeup Look #3 & Colour Pop Lippie Pencil Bunny



Of course I had to do a rainbow look with the Electric palette. I'm pretty happy at how it turned out. I was thinking of pairing this with a pink lipstick but decided, what the heck! Let's go with green! There are no rules.






Product Used

Face
Eyes

Lips






Colour Pop Lippie Pencil in Bunny is a dark emerald green with shimmer. Honestly, I didn't like the shimmery finish and this color applied quite unevenly. The pigmentation was average and the texture was not too creamy or too dry. I purchased it because I thought I would be a perfect match for NYX Wicked Lippie Risque.




Bunny on its own

Bunny with Risque

Monday, March 16, 2015

Urban Decay Electric Palette Makeup Look #2



The second color I really wanted to use from the Electric palette was Slowburn. Hellooooo look at that intense bright orange! What's not to love? This is a really easy look to do. For an edgier look, I paired this with a shimmery gold lipstick. Ahhh so perfect together!





Product Used

Face
  • Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit
  • Tarte Amazonian Clay blush Prim
Eyes
  • To start, I used theBalm Put A Lid on It eyeshadow primer
  • I applied Savage on the crease and Slowburn on the lid
  • On the brow bone, I applied Transforming Pearl from the IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty palette.
  • I applied Fringe on the lower lash line 
  • I applied Rimmel Scandal Eyes Waterproof Khol Kajal Deep Blue on the waterline.
  • I lined the upper lash line with Urban Decay 24/7 liquid eyeliner in Perversion
  • I applied Anastasia Beverly Hills eyebrow powder Ebony on my eyebrows.
  • Ardell Adore Lashes Sophie
Lips






Sunday, March 15, 2015

Urban Decay Electric Palette Makeup Look #1



It's about time I start playing with this palette and deliver a new makeup look. So far I've already done 3 looks using this palette so stay tuned for the other looks. The first color I wanted to use from this palette was Thrash, which is a gorgeous chartreuse shimmer. I thought that Chaos and Urban would be nice complementary colors so I went with that and this is how this makeup look turned out.







Product Used

Face
Eyes
  • To start, I used theBalm Put A Lid on It eyeshadow primer
  • I applied the Urban on the crease, which is the crease color. 
  • I applied Thrash on the center of the lid
  • I applied Chaos on the inner and outer corners of my eyes and also joining both end at the center of the crease and blend it with Urban.
  • I lined the upper lash line with Urban Decay 24/7 liquid eyeliner in Perversion
  • I lined the waterline with L'Oreal Infallible Silkissime Eyeliner Cobalt Blue
  • I smudged Urban on the lower lash line.
  • On the brow bone, I applied Transforming Pearl from the IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty palette.
  • I applied Anastasia Beverly Hills eyebrow powder Ebony on my eyebrows.
  • I applied Ardell false lashes 414
Lips





Sinful Colors Love Sprinkles


I picked up Love Sprinkles about a month ago.  I was drawn by the white heart shape glitters and the baby pink hex glitters. I had to fish for the heart glitters and dab the glitters where I want them to stay. The clear base was not too think or too thin.

I think this mani is really cute. I'm wearing Revlon Electric Chrome Gwen's Crush as the base color.





Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...