Tarte Tartelette Palette Review & Swatches

Hello everyone! I apologize for my crazy long absence, but I’m ready to get back into the blogging world and show you guys some awesome new products! The first one I want to showcase is the Tartelette palette by Tarte. I’m a HUGE sucker for matte shadows and I was so happy that Tarte decided to release an entire palette of neutral matte shades.  One can never have enough matte neutrals!

Right off the bat, one thing that I appreciate is the layout of this palette. The top row contains all your warm shades, the middle is neutrals, and the bottom has cool tones. It really takes all the guess work out of putting together a complete eye look. The shadows themselves are also really great quality. I feel like Tarte gets praise for a lot of other products they have out on the market, but their eye shadows never get much attention, which I don’t understand! They are all very pigmented, buttery smooth, and blend out beautifully. I have found that they can be a little powdery in the pan depending on which brush you use to apply them, but it’s not much of a big deal to me since the majority of good quality matte shadows can get a little chalky.

Now for the part you’ve all been waiting for, SWATCHES! All swatches were done on bare skin with no primer and photo was taken with my iPhone 5 in natural sunlight.

Top Row (From left to right)

Free spirit, Force of Nature, Dreamer, Multi-Tasker

Middle Row (From left to right)

Caregiver, Natural Beauty, Best Friend, Bombshell

Bottom Row (From left to right)

Super Mom, Wanderer, Power Player, Fashionista

As you can see from the swatches, each shadow is really pigmented and smooth. I received this palette for Christmas so I’ve been playing around with it for about 2 months now. I’ve found myself constantly grabbing for this palette which is surprising because I usually play around with new palettes for a week or two then I start to lose interest. This palette is great because you can create full looks without having to pull other shadows from your collection to go with it. The packaging is sleek and would be great to travel with. It’s really become a staple in my collection and I highly recommend it if you’re looking to add some mattes to your collection, or if you’re simply a matte lover like myself!

The Tartelette palette retails for $44 and can be purchased at Sephora, Ulta, or tartecosmetics.com

BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector in Opal Review

I was FINALLY able to get my hands on the Shimmering Skin Perfector in Opal by Becca. This guy has been sold out everywhere for months now, which only made me want it more! This is a very hyped up product and usually when a product has so much hype, I tend to have too high of expectations and end up being disappointed with the product. This highlighter, however, was definitely an exception! The pigmentation is absolutely insane. One small dab of your brush and you can highlight your entire face. The color itself is also gorgeous. It’s a warm gold tone that looks stunning on the skin, especially if you have a bit of a tan. I’ve worn this guy nonstop since I picked it up a few weeks ago. It’s definitely become a staple in my makeup collection.

The only things I don’t like are: #1 the packaging. The top portion with the mirror is bulky and the mirror won’t stand up on it’s own so it’s difficult to apply this guy on the go. #2 the price. It retails for $38 at Sephora. That’s right, 38 DOLLARS! Definitely really steep for a highlighter. Especially when MAC and Benefit sell amazing highlighters for nearly $10 cheaper. However, the product itself is amazing and I would probably fork out the money to buy it again.

Here’s swatches of Becca’s Opal with some other popular highlighters for comparison. All swatches are just one swipe applied with my fingers on bare skin and photographed in natural light.

If you’ve been able to try out Becca’s Skin Perfectors, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below! As always, thanks for stopping by my blog!

MAC Viva Glam Rihanna Review

I know this is no brand spanking new product, but a few months ago Rihanna released a shade of lipstick for MAC’s Viva Glam collection. I’ll be honest, I was really on the fence about buying this lipstick or not, and it was probably the packaging that gave me the final push to purchase it. Who can really resist when MAC does special packaging?! But after wearing this lipstick, I’m pretty surprised that I’m liking it as much as I am.

The lipstick itself is a blue-based red in a frost finish. It is very similar to Ruby Woo (As the name definitely suggests). I feel like MAC took the same color and just turned it into a frost finish instead of Ruby Woo’s signature matte. RiRi Woo also appears to be a lot more sheer, making it a little more versatile if you want to pair it with different colored lip liners, or layer lipsticks. It also feels great on the lips, it’s not drying like Ruby Woo tends to be because of it’s matte finish.

(Swatches are one swipe of lipstick in natural light)

In my personal opinion, I don’t think that RiRi Woo is a necessity unless you’re an avid Rihanna fan, or you just can’t resist that amazing packaging. As you can see from the swatch above, it’s really similar to both Ruby Woo and Russian Red. The only difference is the frosty sheen that can easily be achieved by just using a gloss. But if you’re looking to add a red to your collection, RiRi Woo might be one to check out simply because of how versatile it can be.

Please share any of your thoughts on this lipstick below! Thanks for stopping by and have an enjoyable and relaxing weekend!

 

Lorac Pro 2 Palette Review & Swatches

Happy Friday everyone! This week I received the long anticipated second installment of Lorac’s Pro Palettes. The original Pro Palette is hands down my favorite palette that I own, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this guy! The main different between Pro 1 and Pro 2 is that Pro 2 features cool-toned shades, as opposed to the Pro 1 being full of warm-tones. The packaging is identical to the 1st, with exception to the color being a cool gray. Like the original, it contains a full row of mattes and a full row of shimmers for a total of 16 shadows. The shadows themselves are exactly what we’ve come to expect from Lorac. They are extremely pigmented, buttery smooth on application, and easy to blend. Their quality rivals that of the first Pro palette. Like the first, it also includes a matte black. The variety of colors is also phenomenal. You can go for a more neutral and natural look, or really bump it up with a dark smokey eye. The possibilities are really endless! One color in particular that stood out to me is Nectar. It’s a peachy-pink matte and it’s such an original color! I don’t have anything like it in my collection and it would be perfect in the crease to add some warmth as opposed to using the typical light brown shade. One thing I wish this palette had was a dark matte brown to deepen up looks since the only dark matte that’s not colorful is just plain black.

(Swatches were done on bare skin in natural lighting, only one swipe of color)

Bottom line, I absolutely love this palette. The quality, colors, and variety are so good! It’s the perfect palette for traveling or simply everyday use! It’s definitely one to check out if you’re in the market for great quality shadows with a lot of variety.

The Lorac Pro 2 retails for $42 and is available now at Ulta.com and will be available in Ulta stores on 6/29.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

 

Kat Von D Chrysalis Eyeshadow Palette Review

Kat Von D recently released two palettes inspired by the metamorphosis of the butterfly. There’s the Monarch Palette (warm tones) and the one that I picked up, the Chrysalis Palette (cool tones). I think the first thing I noticed was the gorgeous packaging. It features a cardboard palette with a magnetic closure. The butterfly on the outside is gorgeous and even has little skull details on the wings.

 

The shadows inside are just as gorgeous as the packaging. It features 12 cool-toned shadows (5 matte, 7 shimmers) and they all compliment each other very well. There is also three larger shadows that have already come in really handy for me since Lifelife and Lucid both resemble two MAC shadows that I use constantly (Vanilla and Yogurt). The pigmentation of these is wonderful (as you can see from the swatches below), and they are also very soft and buttery. Because they are so soft, they do tend to flake a bit when you pick up the color with a brush, but I’ve found that this same thing happens with most Kat Von D shadows. However, their quality is so good that it’s not something that would detour me from purchasing her palettes at all. In fact, I own four of them now, and haven’t been disappointed yet!

One thing I really like about this palette is that it offers enough matte and shimmer shadows to be able to do a full look. So often I find palettes that don’t have any matte colors to blend with, so I end up using shadows from other palettes. This palette offers 5 different matte shades, three of them being great colors to blend with.

All swatches are just one swipe of shadow on bare skin with no primer in natural light

The bottom line is, I really, really like this palette. Usually when I get a palette I will use it for a few days, then I will get bored of it and move on to something else until I rediscover it months later. That simply hasn’t been the case with this palette. I’ve used it non-stop since I purchased it, and I’ve gotten compliments every single day!

The Kat Von D Chrysalis palette can by purchased at Sephora or at Sephora’s website http://www.sephora.com/chrysalis-eyeshadow-palette-P385529?icid2=Kat_Von_D_WhatsNew_Carousel_P385529_image for $46.

Milani Rose Powder Blush Review

Milani recently released a limited edition Rose Powder Blush collection. I picked up the shades Lady Rogue (left) and Love Potion (right). Right off the bat, let’s just admire how beautiful these are! I’ll admit it, the rose pattern totally sucked me in! But regardless of how beautiful they are, they are actually really good blushes. They are both a matte finish and have great color payoff. A little bit of these goes a loooong way! They are a bit chalky, but nothing that would turn me off from buying them. Milani’s website also says that real rose petals are micro-milled into the powder to bring out the rosy tones. How cool is that?

Love Potion

Love Potion is probably my favorite of the two. It’s a muted dusty pink color and it’s absolutely gorgeous on the skin. The color payoff on this blush is also a little better than Lady Rogue and applies more evenly on my cheeks. It’s also a color that you could wear year round, and with most looks.

Lady Rogue

Lady Rogue is a very red-based coral color. It’s unlike any blush that I own and I’m quickly falling in love with it. It is very pigmented, but can easily turn into a big mess on your cheeks so it’s important to use a light hand. I think this color is perfect for summer and would look especially good on darker skin tones.

These were swatched on bare skin using no primer with my fingers in natural light. This is just one swipe so you can see how pigmented they are!

The Rose Powder blushes are available in select drug stores and I’ve seen them run from $6-8 dollars depending on the location. They are $7.99 on Milani’s website and you can find them here http://milanicosmetics.com/p-166-rose-powder-blush.aspx#!prettyPhoto%5Bgallery1%5D/3/ (unfortunately, the colors are limited, and both I mentioned are not listed )

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all enjoy your week!

 

Dose of Colors Lipstick Review

A few weeks ago I ordered two lipsticks from Dose of Colors. I have seen these babies all over my Instagram timeline and the colors seemed so vibrate and fun that, naturally, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on them. I picked up the colors Love Potion (right) and Play Date (left).

First off, let’s talk about the packaging. I love that they went with white instead of the typical black that we see a lot of cosmetic companies use these days. It’s clean, the logo is nice and fun, and the bottom also shows an accurate representation of the color which is incredibly useful. Even the outer box that the lipstick comes in is colorful and fantastic! I definitely give the packaging an A.

Swatches! I’m crushing pretty hard on Love Potion. It’s like no other color that I own. It’s a bright orchid color that leans a bit toward the purple side. Play Date is a bright coral color that’s perfect for summer. These lipsticks are incredibly long lasting and very comfortable to wear. I honestly can’t think of a single thing I don’t like about them, except maybe that they are only available online, which still isn’t really an issue for me. The shipping was fast and I received my order within 4 days of placing. Dose of Colors also has lipgloss and eyelashes that I’m hoping to try in the future when I pick up a few more lipsticks.

The lipsticks are $16 each (same as MAC) and can be purchased on the Dose of Colors website at http://www.doseofcolors.com

House of Lashes Pixie Luxe Eyelash Review

After seeing my Instagram timeline full of gorgeous lashes from House of Lashes, I finally decided to take the plunge and pick up a pair…or three! I wanted a style that I could wear every day that aren’t insanely dramatic, so I decided on the Pixie Luxe style. I ordered the 3 pack which was $30 and included shipping since shipping is free with a $25 purchase.

These lashes are such good quality! They are nice and full, but not so dramatic that I feel crazy when I wear them. They also have a really long band, so for you girls with large eyes, these are for you! I’ve never had to cut down a band to fit my eyes before, but I did have to take a bit off of these to make them fit. 

Another thing I really like about these lashes is that they have a dark band so they blend seamlessly into any eyeliner that you are wearing, or they act like liner if you are skipping some for the day. Here’s a  look that I did wearing these lashes so you can get an idea of how they look on.

 I’m really impressed with these lashes and I can definitely see myself picking up more pairs in the future. I’m dying to try out their Noir Fairy style!

You can order from House of Lashes on their website at http://houseoflashes.com/