across the west

So I went on a family trip to Yellowstone and thought I'd post some pictures because it was sooo beautiful :D

MAC Hocus Pocus

I'm back from my trip! And I think I might post a few pictures because it was really picturesque ^^

It's a bit late, but the only thing I picked up from the bloggers' collection was hocus pocus eyeshadow created by Lianne from themakeupgirl. I saw swatches before it's initial release and wanted to pick it up. I do love it. I've been wearing it almost daily. I even get compliments on it! ^^ They're supposed to re-release the colors soon so if you can, I'd highly recommend picking up the color if you can manage to ^^ I find the texture easy to work with, the color payoff pretty good, not to mention it's a great color for a smoky eye.

Swatches:

 

 

NOTD: Essie

It's been a while since my last nail post xD I blame it on the yellowing of my nails >_< I actually tried water marbling my nails the other day and it turned out ok. Not great though :/ but hopefully my next time will be better and I'll take pictures! =D So this is the first color I wore from my nail haul.

Essie - absolutely shore

It's kind of a pale pastelish green, almost a blue.

Anyways, I love this color!! I think its soooo prettyyy teehee The formula is a little liquidy and thin, but it's not difficult to work with. This is with 2 coats.


And as a bonus: Essie - lapis of luxury

but only on my thumb. I really loved this color but I really hated this formula. It was way too thin and that is like 3 coats. I was really disappointed in the quality of the polish to be honest. I couldn't get past my thumb. As in...I applied it on my thumb and it took too much work to get it to that color that I knew there was no way that I was going to exert that much energy to get it on all 10 fingers. And this was the "salon" formula :P which I actually don't really know that there's a difference...other than the sticker on top versus bottom and the fact that the retail version has less polish.

Overall, 4/5 for absolutely shore and 2/5 for lapis of luxury

and i'm going on a family trip so no posts for the rest of the week! ^^ but I will be back =D

mini nail polish haul!

So if you aren't aware, Rite Aid has the Essie Braziliant collection on clearance right now. At $4 a pop I couldn't resist picking up a few colors >_< I've been dying to buy some bright orange coral polishes and I think I've satisfied my lemming lol I prolly would've skipped braziliant except i kinda love the name and couldn't resist owning it xD I'm wondering if I should show pictures though since I'm planning on using them for pedicures :/ Btw, my rite aid did not have the clearance stickers or any marks at all but they rang up 50% off at the register so definitely check it out.

L-R: absolutely shore, too too hot, meet me at sunset, & braziliant

MAC Mega Metal Eyeshadows

Swatches & dupes of the Mega Metal Eyeshadows I picked up from Peacocky collection.

Dalliance:

This is prolly my favorite color right now. It's a shimmery champagne/taupe-ish color.

When I first saw this color, I was struck by how much it reminded me of Vex eyeshadow. As seen in the picture above, the mega metal eyeshadows are much bigger than the regular MAC eyeshadow pots.

Dalliance on left, Vex on right. As you can see, dalliance is lighter than vex. Also vex has a pink/green color that you can't really see in the swatches/pictures that is not in dalliance.

Tweet Me:

From L-R: from Colour 4 Quad: Aztec Brick, Flip, From Too Faced Natural Eye Palette: Silk Teddy, Honey Pot, Megal Metal in Tweet Me

I find that this color is too sheer for me. It doesn't show up too well on my skintone.

Centre Stage:

L-R: Too Faced Natural Eye Palette: Cocoa Puff, Erotica, Sexpresso, Naked Palette: Buck, Smog, Dark Horse, MAC Satin Taupe, Showstopper, Inglot: M327, MAC Centre Stage

I have a lot of browns ^^"

Price:  3/5
$19.50 for 3.4g or 0.11 US oz compared to $14.50 for 1.5g or 0.05 US oz for regular MAC eyeshadows
You definitely get more for your money with these super sized shadows. Since they're no longer in stores, you would have to pick them up at your local CCOs, which is what I did. I picked one up for $13.75 I believe, which is cheaper than a regular eyeshadow.

Product: 4/5
Compared to normal eyeshadows, I find the texture a lot nicer. More smooth and fairly pigmented. However, I find that I still need a base to really bring out the color. If I find more colors at my CCO, I would definitely pick them up.

MAC Gem of Roses

So I had been planning to pick up some of the MSFs and this lipstick from the Semi-Precious Collection but when I went into the store to check it out in person, the msfs were very sheer and too shimmery for my taste :( so i skipped that and picked up this lipstick. It's a lustre finish, albeit a bit on the sheer side. It's a bit MLBB color. It's sold out online so you'll have to pick it up in stores if they still have it.

small haul post

Hocus Pocus from Bloggers' Collection

Gem of Roses from Semi-Precious

Mat Velvet + in 30

and recently got into pigments and hunted down
MAC Pigments in Sunnydaze, Sunpepper, & Blonde's Gold

swatches coming soon! :D

Foundation Swatches #2

More foundation swatches!! :D

From Left to Right:
MUFE HD 120, 125, Face & Body 20, Mat Velvet 30, 35, 40,

Some general impressions:

MUFE HD: I really like how the HD photographs. True to its namesake, I tend to wear it on days I take pictures. It looks fairly natural as long as you don't cake it on but it does have a satiny finish. The oil control kind of sucks with this foundation. I found myself super oily after a few hours so I find myself having to wear a oil control primer underneath. The coverage is medium to full and buildable. The color selection is wide and has some leeway. However, I would check with the undertones for the right shades since even if it's the right color, the tone might be off. I originally had the 123 but it was way too olive, like noticeably off, even though the lightness was ok. The 120 runs fairly yellow compared to other colors. It's kinda weird but the yellower foundations are overall lighter than their beige and olive counterparts so you might want to check out the undertones of the color before buying it. I think I explained it kind of weird but it's a bit of trouble I ran into when searching for my right color >_<

Face & Body probably has my favorite finish of all the MUFE foundations I tried. It looks slightly dewy but not oily which is really hard to pull off when you have oily skin. I thought the texture was a bit weird since it kinda seems gelatin-like. You definitely need to mix it since it tends to separate. The coverage was medium to full I would say. The color selection on this is weird cuz it doesn't really have an order. Supposedly, it's numbered in the order that the shade was made...which makes no sense at all for a foundation. So I would definitely search Temptalia's foundation matrix before picking out a shade. I'm actually not sure how this photographs and wears overall because my skin reacted badly to it. In general, my skin is really finicky and its been reacting badly to everything I'm putting on my face so I don't blame this foundation in the least. It just makes me sad that I can't go more in-depth on it. :'(

I know Mat Velvet gets a ton of raves online, but meh. It's not my favoritest MUFE foundation. It is mattifying since it's for oily skin and I find that it kind of dries out my skin if I wear it more than a day at a time. I'm not the oiliest person I know, especially with my skin being extremely temperamental right now, but I would definitely not recommend this for drier skintypes. It has a fuller coverage and as you can see above, the 35 is way darker than the 40. Once again, the beige undertones make for a darker shade even though it's technically "in between." One con is that I find that this color definitely oxides :(

Mac Smoking Dupe?

Before I went into Inglots, I intended to buy AMC 64 because I had read online it was a dupe for Mac's Smoking (from the smoking quad) pictured below

but I didn't actually bring the quad with me and I couldn't really remember what it looked like and the lady at the store was wearing AMC 62 and it looked fab so I walked out with that instead.

I would probably say the AMC 64 is more of a dupe than the 62. You can't tell from the picture, but in real life, the glitters are different colors. In the smoking quad, the glitters are more silvery gold specks. In the AMC 62, the glitters are more peachy pink. In addition, the black is a lot more pigmented in the inglot shadow.

TOP: MAC SMOKING, BOTTOM: AMC 62

same order as before, swatched heavily

pinky left: AMC 62, ring finger right: MAC smoking

As you can tell, the black is more pigmented in the Inglot shadow but that seems to be a point against it since the shimmer is not as evident. You would have to work with a much lighter hand to get the same look as with the smoking quad. Thus the smoking eye shadow is a bit better to have but the AMC could be a decent dupe since it's quite difficult to get your hand on a smoking quad. Although personally I think I will pick up the AMC 64 to see how it compares ^^"

Etude House Color My Brows

 Color My Brows is a brow mascara that combs to set, shade and moisten brows for a refined natural look.

Available in Rich (dark) brown and Light Brown.

Price:
￦6,000 ($ 5.57). for Net Wt. 4.5g (0.15 oz.)

Product:

Comes in a paper packaging:

Directions: Use wand to gather makeup and apply to brows by combing along direction of growth.

So in retrospect, I probably should have picked up the dark brown over the light brown but I had tried so many eyebrow powders and pencils that were too dark and my eyebrows are pretty black as they are that I just didn't really like the overall effect of darkening my brows that I opted for a lighter color to lighten my eyebrows.

Comes with a small mascara wand. The color is a golden copper brown. It has a tiny bit of lustre and sparkle in a golden undertone

 Left is applied, right eyebrow is bare.

Ingredients:

 Overall:
4/5
It's the only brow gel I've ever tried, not really counting clear mascara. I think it's pretty good. I haven't seen much cheaper ones. I think it's a tad bit more glittery than I would like, but not in a in your face kind of way. I like that it does lighten my brows but not noticeably so. It's not too thick or sticky so that's good. I'm not 100% sure on its lasting power since I haven't really tested it in extreme cases. I think I might try the dark brown color next.