ELF Brightening Eye Color in Luxe

This palette has been in my collection for quite a while and I did not quite know how to make use of it to create a pleasing eye look. This was because I did not know how to use the taupe color in the quad to suit my skintone. For me, one color that is difficult to work with is taupe and I dismissed this palette to the back of my drawer because of that color, which is quite unfair really. So when I was free one evening, I took this out and challenged myself to come up with a look that used all the colors - yes, even the dark greyish taupe. I must say, I was quite pleased with the results and also thought of one more way to make taupe work for me. Let me share that with you as you read....

This is Luxe (#2005) from the dollar range of products that ELF has and I bought this in a spree quite some time back! My apologies if the photo looks a little mangy....there is color dust all over the palette and I took photo's of this AFTER I had used the palette for this look.

Here is the finished look which from afar looks very wearable even for the office. Quite muted and not at all over the top. The key to this was slowly layering the colors and careful blending. I have not used this look for the office yet but will do so when I have enough time to apply, blend and keep it light and muted.

Up close, you can see the colors in the quad. Particularly I wanted to try the rosy red as this is not a common color as well as not something you would think of using to the office. In the picture, I used it in the crease to 'lift' the rest of the colors and give some definition to the eye. I topped this off by defining my brows with a spoolie and a coordinating brow color swept through to give the brows more shape. I then used a black liquid liner and finished with lashings of mascara on the lashes.

If you have this quad (or are thinking of picking something up from ELF) and have been wondering how to do justice to all the colors, I have added a guide here for you. In the picture below, I have numbered the colors. 1 - is a creamy yellowish beige with shimmer; 2 -  is a rosey burgundy color; 3 - is a shimmery taupey brown and 4 - is a dark taupe with greyish undertones.

Here is how I placed the products on my lids and they correspond to the numbering on the quad itself. I started off by priming my lids with NYX Eyeshadow Base in Skintone - ladies, if you do not use primer on your lids, do consider starting because this one step prevents creasing (which is a problem for me) and it really intensifies whatever colors you use and keeps it looking vibrant all day. I work long hours somedays and I put on my make-up at 6:30 in the morning and when I get home at 7 in the evening, I sometimes stop and stare in amazement at how brilliant and fresh my eye colors look even after 12 hours!

I placed the beige on the eyelid as you can see above and used this as my base color. I extended this color all over my eyelid concentrating on the inner part of my eye. Once that was done, I used the rosey red with burgundy undertones on the crease of my lid with a fluffy brush and blended this in until it was a light swathe of color.

I then used the light brown on the middle towards the outer corner of my eyelid to create a gradual wash of color from light to dark. Then with the darkest color, I placed this on the outer corner of my eye to give it some shading and definition. This I blended well with a clean blending brush. I took some of the light brown and used this on the top of area #2 to blend in the harsh lines of the red. Lastly, I used the lightest color as a highlight on my browbone - #1.

Remember I mentioned that I thought of another way to make the colors pop on my skin? Well, the next time I use this quad, I will use NYX jumbo pencil in Milk all over the lid so the colors look a little more brighter...perhaps the effect will be different. Promise to update you once I get the chance to do that!!

Hope you liked this....

Blue and Purple Eye

For some reason I have been craving blue and purple makeup. So here is an eye look I did with yellow gold in the inner corner into blue into purple and into darker purple with a touch of black. There seems to be a greenish cast on the crease but I did not use any green at all.

I created this look using the Coastal Scents 88 palette. I primed with MAC's Painterly. The eyes were lined with IN2IT black liquid liner and Loreal Ultra Volume Mascara was used on my lashes. Seeing that it is so fierce, it would be wise to keep the rest of the face light!

Have a great weekend y'all!

My Top Beauty Picks of 2011!

Here are some practices I started in 2010 and am continuing through 2011 and beyond. These are items which have become entrenched in my beauty routine now and I cannot do without them.

Meet my not so new friends – NYX Eye Shadow Base and Smashbox PhotoFinish Primer. These are the two additions to my beauty steps prior to applying makeup.

I love NYX Eye Shadow Base for the lasting power it gives my eye shadows and now I do not have to worry about that ugly oily crease that I get in my eye socket by midday. I used to be so self conscious about it and sometimes when I am busy at work and forget to check, I wonder how others would have felt when they had to look at the ugly light brown line on my eye where the oil had its way! Not any more…..i wonder why I did not discover this earlier, because it certainly has been a wonderful product. Initially I was skeptical as to whether this product would deliver as even though I had heard about Urban Decay’s Primer Potion, I had not come around to purchasing it due to the numerous complaints about its seemingly flawed design. There were hundreds of YouTube posts on how to depot what was in the cute bottle and that scared me a little, I must admit.

Well, the NYX ES Base indeed was a little surprise in a pot for me as the payoff was good, bright colors and most important of all, super staying power. Even when I walk out in the sunny heat for lunch, my eye does not get that oily crease-y gunk that looks terrible. I cannot say enough about how much I love this product.

When I finally got round to purchasing Urban Decay’s Primer Potion, I did not use it as much as I do my NYX. I have also (albeit, a little unfairly) not given it a spin and put it to the 12 hours and above test like my NYX. I guess I will have to get round to doing that soon and when I do, I will let you know how that went. In fact one day I am going to use UDPP on one eye and NYX ESB on the other and put it to the test that way!!

My other makeup staple now is the Photofinish Primer by Smashbox….which they have thankfully also repackaged! The old packaging was terrible and until this day I have not figured out how to get the last bit of Primer out of that damn package! I love how my face looks and remains fresh throughout the day with the Primer on and it really controls the oily shine that is so unsightly. I still need to pat my oily face with a tissue or Blotting papers after lunch everyday but even if I forget, the oil does not shine like a beacon on my face!

Another good substitute for this Primer, if you are a beauty on a budget is Monistat Chafing Gel. It is just as good as the Smashbox version only cheaper. I do use both interchangeably without preference for any one. I think Smashbox is slightly better at controlling my oiliness but just marginally so. I do not think Monistat can be purchased here in Malaysia (at least I have not seen it in the shops) but there are some online spreer’s that will be more than happy to purchase it for you.

Apart from these, I am also more aware of the need to exfoliate regularly and I use Clinique’s Exfoliating Scrub every two or three days. The grains in this gentle scrub are not abrasive and can be used often. It is 100% fragrance free and its top ingredient is water. I never realized how my pores can get clogged and thus resistant to absorbing all the good and expensive products I have bought for my skin until a recent experiment done by my favorite SA at Clinique (Pavilion). She cleansed my cheeks – one side with cleanser and the other she used the Exfoliating Scrub. She then applied my moisturizer on both cheeks and asked me to feel which side had absorbed the moisturizer best. Lo and behold it was the cheek that had been exfoliated that had completely absorbed the moisturizer! That side of my cheek felt smooth and satiny. The other side was still a little damp with my moisturizer just ‘sitting’ on my skin and after some vigorous rubbing, I then felt that the moisturizer had been absorbed. That too not as fully as the other cheek that was exfoliated.

We may sometimes think we know so much about makeup but there are still some tips and tricks we can learn that will benefit our skin greatly. It is one thing to talk about the benefits of doing something or using some product but until we experiment and see the results for ourselves, we will never know. So do try this little experiment for yourself with whatever Exfoliating Scrub you currently use and then see how well your moisturizer is absorbed. For my face, I have to exfoliate every three to four days in order for my moisturizer to properly be absorbed. The environment we work in also plays a big part in clogging our pores. A cleanser alone cannot wash away what is deeply embedded in our pores and the dust (heat and dust are our greatest enemies when it comes to clogged pores and being in the tropics, we cannot run away from these two things). So, surprise, surprise, our cleansers do clean what lies on the surface but a thorough exfoliation or even a deep clay mask will do the trick of cleansing from deep within.

What are your must haves for 2011 dear readers? Have you discovered a tip that was interesting? Do share!

My First Eye Look Using UD Naked Palette

This is my first look created using the Urban Decay Naked Palette! I love the colors so much and I knew exactly which colors I wanted to rock this morning! Nope....I had nowhere to go and nothing to do, but I so much wanted to play around with the colors that I spent half an hour just doing my eyes. Another first if you did not already notice, I have on falsies!!! My first time using false eyelashes. I am indeed proud of myself. Not a look you want to sport to the office....well you could, if you toned down the eyeliner and left out the falsies.

Here is the complete look. I started off by priming the eye lids with my NYX Eye Shadow Base, which I think is comparable to the UD primer potion. I have worn eye make up with this as a base for 12 hours straight and it looked as fresh as it did when I put it on.

 Take Virgin and lay some down on the inner corner of the eyes as well as on the brow bone to highlight. I could have used more on the brow bone - I failed to realise that once I was done with the look, Virgin had sort of faded a little with all the buffing and swirling.

Then take Sin and use that all over the lids going up to just below the brow bone. After that, tear off a small piece of sticky tape and angle it on the outer corner of your eyes to achieve the cut crease look. (Many tutorials of the cut crease are available on YouTube, please watch those to get an idea of how this is done.) Make sure you take off the tackiness of the sticky tape on the back of your hand prior to using it on the outer corner of your eyes. Once you are happy with the placement of the sticky tape, take a small fluffy brush and apply Half Baked on the middle of the eyelid. You don't need to go all the way to the outer corner of the eyes but concentrate on the middle of the lids.

On the outer corner use the same small fluffy blender brush to pick up Hustle and apply going from the sticky tape towards the middle of the crease of the eye. Pick up a little more of Hustle and repeat until you get the density that you are happy with. I also took a small amount of Creep and concentrated on the outer corner to give it a little more definition.

Then use Zero to line the upper eyelid and Whiskey to line the lower lids. I used Sidecar  with a pencil brush over Whiskey to make the color pop...but I don't think I used enough as I could not see it clearly in these pictures.

Over this I added my False eyelashes. These are from Taiwan and look quite pretty and natural. I had to put on a thick layer of Liquid Eye Liner - Cyber Color in Black, to mask the glue line of the falsies. I did not quite get the falsies to stick nicely so if you note that in these pictures, please forgive me. It is my first attempt after all!

Hope you like this look - my hubby said I looked like a Geisha with my fluttery lashes!!

Dupes for the Urban Decay Naked Palette

Here it is for all you dear readers out there who are wondering whether to purchase this magnifisome (magnificent and awsome rolled into one) palette. Personally, you should splurge on the Urban Decay palette and keep it in your stash for I guarantee that this is the one palette you will be going to over and over again for all sorts of looks. If you are into smoky, sultry looks or even something toned down for the office, this is a sure winner. I am thinking of buying another one of these as a backup - THAT'S how much I love the colors!!

In a rather primitive way, I have swatched the colors on a piece of paper and swatched both the original and the dupe alongside each other. The good news for you is that most of the colors can be found in the Coastal Scents 88 Warm palette. Two of the colors I have taken from the Coastal Scents 88 Eyeshadow Palette. So if you do have the 88 Warm palette, then you are indeed in luck and can get your fingers stuck in with creating the numerous looks possible with these colors. Humbly I submit that these dupes are colors that I found which look as close or close enough to the original UD Naked Palette and if you have the same palette and feel that there are other colors which are a closer match, then please do let me know.

What you see here is the Urban Decay Palette on the Right and the 88 Palette on the left. I believe that the colors are quite a close match and you will be able to get a similar effect layering the 88 palette to get a deeper color. I have only used my fingers for the swatches and as some of the UD colors are shimmers, the camera does not pick that up very well. I will let you know how I referenced the 88 colors below as these colors have no name.

What are your thoughts on the dupes? Quite amazingly similar right? The colors that were the most difficult to find a match for in the CS palettes was Half Baked and Gunmetal. Half Baked is in two words:- liquid gold! It is quite hard to replicate that and I am thinking of  MAC painpots in Bare Study or Cash Flow as good dupes. The Gunmetal dupe had a slight greenish tint which was not present to the naked eye prior to swatching. As for Darkhorse, the color is pretty spot on if you layer it a few times. My swatch was just two swipes in the picture clearly not enough to get the deep chocolatey goodness of the original.

If you are interested in trying out the Naked look and do not already have the palette because it is sold out or yours is on the way or even if you are just curious as to what the hype is all about, then do give these colors from your 88 palette a test drive and see if you like them. You might just be convinced to get the original to keep after you fall in love with the versatile looks you can recreate!

So if you see the swatches of the 88 colors above, you will notice that they are referenced this way:- 3/3 W or 10/2 ESP. 3/3 means the third row from the left and the third color down. The 'W' or 'ESP' after the number reference is 'W' for Warm and 'ESP' for Eye Shadow Palette. The palette you see directly below here is the Warm Palette which is where the majority of the dupes are found. The palette below that is the Eye Shadow palette with its mixture of brights and browns.



The 88 Warm Palette from Coastal Scents

The 88 Eye Shadow Palette from Coastal Scents

I do hope that these dupes have inspired you to find similar colors for the UD Naked palette in other brands. I know MAC has some dupe-worthy colors that you can use as a substitute for some of the colors in the Naked palette. What is important is that you are not restricted by just the colors of one brand - even if there is a huge cult following sometimes, it is just as fun to walk on the wild side and see that colors, as varied as they are, do still have similar undertones and can be replicated successfully. Have fun!

Totally Naked with Urban Decay's Naked Palette

Surely you have seen it and love the colors right? Urban Decay made half the ladies of the world go ga-ga over this much anticipated palette and judging by the inability of the stores to keep this on their store shelves, everybody is truly loving this incredible palette. The colors are also super sexy and best of all, you don't have to keep this in the drawer to be pulled out for evenings out but rather, many of the colors are well suited for day looks. Just check out the many video's on YouTube on how-to's. I promise to show you a look or two using these colors in the very near future and if you are darker skinned, you will be able to appreciate how these colors look on your skin.

I was in Singapore late last year and called up Sephora to check if I could come and get one and I could hear the SA on the other end laughing in an evil high pitched laugh before she said "No chance of getting one...we don't have stock now and the last batch sold out in seconds!" What to do but book via a spree on Lowyat.net early this year and as I am writing this, I am gently stroking the lovely velvet cover of my palette! Yay!

I must say that the day I received my palette, I spent 25 minutes just staring at how lovely the colors were as I sat by my window......this is well and truly the mother of all neutral palettes and I can really understand why everyone is crazy over it!

As you can see above, this palette came with the 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil in two colors as well as 3.7ml's of the Primer Potion (below). The only complaint I would have is that the Primer Potion is still in it's old packaging and I guess I would have to depot this once the bottom bit cannot be accessed but thats another story altogether.

  

 These are the swatches of the colors on the back of the box.

 The amount of product you get is 1.3 grams per palette which is plenty of color and real value for money.

Even though you have probably seen many swatches, the difference here is that it is on my skin and if you are curious to know what these colors look like on olive/dusky/Indian skin then scroll on.

If you ask what my favourite colors are, I must say Sin, Halfbaked, Toasted and Hustle. A lot of the colors have pinky undertones to them and are workable on every skintone. Buck is very close to my skintone and seems to disappear as you can see above. Halfbaked is like liquid gold with a yellowish undertone and will be gorgeous on dusky skin. Smog and Sidecar are also worthy of a mention for being bronzily beautiful.

These are the swatches of the eye pencils, one half is a black called Zero and the other half a browney bronze called Whiskey.

After looking and thinking about the colors, I realized that not all women out there will want to shell out plenty of money for this palette - cult following nonwithstanding. Fret not for there are respectable and affordable dupes out there which you can use and pull off a decent look. I found most of the dupes in the Coastal Scents 88 Warm Palette as well as in the 88 Eye Shadow Palette. These I have kept for another post and once I sort out the pictures I will post that so you can do a whole look with similar colors. Perhaps Sidecar and Halfbaked were the biggest challenge to dupe but there are very close matches for both in Coastal Scents 88 palette.

For those of you who are celebrating Chinese New Year - Have a prosperous start to the Year of the Rabbit!

Ellefar 9 Color Shadow Palette From Daiso

Wow Daiso! I walked in to the One Utama outlet last Sunday and it was packed to the brim with people browsing through the racks of stuff they have there! There seems to be something for everyone and I bet you will never come away without buying something! Everything from cosmetics to kitchenware is in one store and all for RM5 flat!

See what I bought.......this is Ellefar Slim Color Pact - 9 Color Eye Shadow Palette called Sweet. I was drawn to this because I thought the colors were adorable and versatile enough to create several looks as well as being useful to take along while travelling. I must admit though that I was sceptical as to whether the color payoff would be good. But for RM5 who can complain right?

Have a look at these shimmery colors up close. The palette does not name each color so what you see is what you get. My favourites are the from left to right at the top, first row, third color - its a salmon pink. In the second row, I love the rich chocolate brown and in the bottom row, the buttercup yellow, right, is also quite delicious.

I must say that these colors are fairly pigmented which you can see from the swatches below. You will see a little powdery fallout but it is quite minimal. All colors except the chocolate brown were swatched once. In order to get the chocolate brown to show up properly, I needed to swatch twice.

The three pinks look similar but are ever slightly different if you look closely. The white (top row, middle color) looks like it has a little blue undertone in the picture which really surprised me because it looks a little pinky in the pan. This could be because this color is flanked by two pinks on either side. The green and blue at the bottom are quite exciting colors and I cannot wait to experiment with them some time soon.

I tried a look with three colors:- I used the cream (middle row, right) all over my lids and used a little on the brow bone. I then used the salmon color (top row, right) over the cream on the lids to create a subtle wash and then used the chocolate brown (middle row, left) at the corner and along the crease line. The cream and the salmon turned out quite nicely but I found it a little hard to get the chocolate brown to show up clearly. I did not put on more shadow as I was in a rush to get to the office. That is the trouble darker skinned women encounter - some colors are harder to wear than others. Its something I am working on by watching online videos and looking at tutorials. I will try this again soon and see if I can get the brown to show a little more.

I must say this is an interesting palette and if you want a little fix to appease the inner shopping queen in you, then head on over to Daiso - they have other little goodies too!

Rimmel Color Rush Duo Eye Shadow in Soft Glam

When Rimmel first hit Malaysian shores I was really excited because I remember purchasing a few items from this drugstore brand way back in the early nineties in London.

When it comes to eyeshadows, I was not very adventurous and only preferred light pink to deep purples. However, after seeing so many wonderful lady bloggers out there use to-die-for colors on their lids and watching all the inspiring You Tube videos of women of color experiment with bold bright colors, I have become more adventurous too! So when I saw this, I decided to purchase it because green was a color that I had previously NEVER considered putting on my lids......  

This duo is called Soft Glam and I must say that there is nothing "Soft" or "Glam" about this! Strong words, I know.

The moment I opened the package, I noticed that there was powdery dust all over the inside of product. The shadows were not smooth upon application and there was a lot of fallout under my eye which had to be cleaned up. The color payoff was miserable especially the lighter color at the bottom. In the picture above, it looks rather silvery but its actually a lovely light cream shade, which was what caught my attention to this duo anyway.

As for it not being soft - the sponge tip applicator provided is of course, crap. But the product itself, seems very grainy and coarse with a lot of product wastage because of its powdery nature.

The colors too are not glam - let me show you the swatches below:-

The top swatch is the green color which is a lovely shade but, in order to get the color to match that of what you actually see in the packaging, you will need to apply it several times. This is not a single swipe of the color on my hand but about three or four swipes! The bottom color on the other hand totally refuses to turn up on my hand and you cannot really see a true reflection of the color too. I swatched this at least six times and was still unable to get the color to show up! The same goes for when I apply it on my lids........

Verdict: Totally dislike this product and would not recommend it. Pricewise, it's priced at RM18.90 at the time of purchase so it did not cause any trauma to my wallet. As for my introduction to green....well this bad experience has not totally put me off the color so I will continue to look for the perfect green for my skintone. Meanwhile, I will chuck this duo in with the other colors that are lying in my cosmetics graveyard.