Review: Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette

Hello world! It's been a while since I posted but here's a review of the Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette. 

 The palette costs $27US/$32CDN and can be bought at your local Sephora.

 There are 6 shades in the palette: Venus, Foxy, W.O.S., Naked 2, Faint and Crave.

 Venus: "Soft, Off-White Demi Matte"This is the only eyeshadow in the palette that isn't matte. Urban Decay said it is a "demi-matte" shade and it definitely isn't matte. The shade is more like a white shimmer and makes this eyeshadow BEAUTIFUL for highlighting your brow bone, inner tear duct or even the top of your cheekbones (if you don't have a separate highlighter for that). The shimmer is very fine and creates a subtle glow when applied but because there still is slight sparkle, there's a little bit of sparkle fall out. The eyeshadow is creamy and not too pigmented that the highlight is extremely bright.
Foxy: "Cream Bisque Matte" This eyeshadow is more of a yellow-toned neutral. It could be used as an all over lid color for those with more yellow skin tone or be a transitional color for fair skinned ladies. If darker or tanned skin tones used it, it could be used to create a glow that makes your eyes pop just a little bit more (as long as you don't try to pack on the yellow tones). Like Venus, the eyeshadow is very creamy and silky to the touch but once blended into my skin, I can't see it anymore (perfect match for my skin tone).
W.O.S. (Walk of Shame): "Very Light Nude Matte" This is a peach-pink based neutral eyeshadow. Both Foxy and W.O.S. would be great eyeshadows for a "no makeup makeup" look because they could easily cover up any veins or discolorations on your eyelid but not add anything too "unnatural". It's one of those shades that work in a subtle way and aren't necessarily noticeable but are great for blending! It also has a nice creamy and silky texture.
Naked 2: "Taupe Matte" This is when the palette becomes useful for blending or creating a smokey eye. Naked 2 is a neutral toned transitional color great for putting in your crease for subtle definition on those "no makeup makeup" days. It's a light brown shade with neutral to slightly warm tones. It's an easy colour to blend with and has good creaminess but not crazy pigmentation like all the other shades so far. I wouldn't necessarily call shade this taupe though...
Faint: "Warm Dusty Brown Matte" Faint is like a "milk chocolate brown" color to me. It is great for slowly adding definition when attempting a smokey eye or just blending in general.
Crave: "Deepest, Darkest Brown/Black Matte" I wouldn't call this shade brown because it is definitely black. It looks black in the pan and it looks black when you apply it. Crave is a pure black shade and is crazy pigmented. Unlike the other shades in this palette, Crave has a bit of a chalky pigment and does not apply as smoothly as the other shadows but can still be blended out.

Overall, the palette is nice but I'm not sure if its necessarily worth my money. You're getting 6 eyeshadows for $27 (I bought it for 27 on the 15% off Sephora Beauty Insider sale) which equals $4.50 per shadow. Surely that's a good thing right? But if you look at the pictures, the eyeshadows are practically untouched. I don't use this palette much and I find that not all the colors appear on my skin (I'm not a huge fan of subtle sometimes) so this palette is still iffy with me. Also, this palette has a certain smell! If you go on makeupalley or some other website, people often describe the smell as "dog pee" but HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT DOG PEE SMELLS LIKE? Honestly, it's not a pleasant scent and that turns me off from the palette but the smell is also one of those factors that if you concentrate on it, the smell just becomes more disgusting and repelling so I'm trying not to focus on it when I use these shadows...

Pigmentation: 3.5/5
Texture: 4.5/5
Overall: 4/5 (ignoring the smell)

xoxo, Michelle

P.S. Sorry if this post lacks my usual hyper-ness, I just haven't been in the mood lately (dealing with some boy crap) and I thought I should post something and stop being a bad blogger... I did get a new camera though so 1. these photos are much more high quality even though the background sucks and 2. I can film videos! I don't know if I will be filming video reviews/tutorials since I'm still such a noob to makeup but we'll see :)

World Cup 2014 (ahhhhh)

(July 13th, 2014) Hi! I know this blog is about makeup but I am just floored by the 2014 FIFA World Cup! I absolutely love Mario Gotze/Goetze and I have for a while so what happened today just made my mind implode.

Interesting Story: last night I was thinking to myself, "I know Goetze isn't going to start because Loew would want to keep the same team that destroyed Brazil but he might get substituted. He always does his best when he substitutes though and I wonder what would happen if he ends up being the one to kick the winning goal for Germany.." I SERIOUSLY THOUGHT ABOUT THAT BEFORE I WENT TO BED. And I still can't believe that happened.

My mind has been blown. Gotze/Goetze (I don't have the accent/"periods" on my laptop) is an amazing player and he is going get MUCH more publicity now that he scored it. He was the second most expensive German footballer and now he might go down in German history for this.

Amazing guy and I am pretty jealous of his German model girlfriend :3

xoxo, Michelle

Review: Laneige Volume Setting Mascara

Hello blogsphere! I am here with a review! I would apologize for my absence since my last post but since I changed up the look of it, the date is no longer displayed MUAHAHAHAHAH okay moving on I'm reviewing the Laneige Volume Setting Mascara. 

So I have been informed that Laneige is sold in Target USA, no? Well well, good for you Korean makeup brand! Laneige is like the "Dior of South Korea" in my opinion, based on typical quality and prices. Now this mascara is called the volume setting mascara. But when I tried it, I saw no change for volume but DEFINITELY for length. I have pretty long eyelashes but these made my eyelashes look sooo long that it looked very unnatural. But that's only because I already have the length and I just want additional volume. Another issue I have with this mascara is that it tends to group eyelashes together. I also have a lot of eyelashes (yay natural volume and length and curl) so when I saw that it made my lashes disappear and look like there's less, that was disappointing. It's supposed to give volume not take it away... Another disappointing thing about the mascara is that it clumps. I don't know if it's just because I've had the mascara for about a year (yeah yeah yeah there's germs but it's not like I use mascara everyday or share mascaras btw to whoever is reading this, never ever EVER share mascara!) but because I usually go a couple coats onto my lashes, sometimes a small black glob will attach to my lashes and make me sad :( if you haven't noticed yet, this is practically a post of negative things :/ sooo next, I find that the mascara doesn't hold my curl very well. I think it might be my eyelash curler (the Shu Uemura S Curler aka the small eyelash curler) because I don't like how I have to curl in sections but this mascara always straightens my eyelashes.... My aunt (a different one than the one who bought me my Shu Uemura collection) bought this as a gift and although I thank her for it, I personally wouldn't repurchase again. Strange how the mascara is specifically made for volume yet it did the opposite for me....

PROS:

-makes lashes pure black (help with blending into falsies?)

-lengthens lashes

CONS:

-takes away volume (maybe because I've already got the maximum volume natually??)

-leaves clumps on mascara

-doesn't hold curl very well

Rating : 1.5/5 

xoxo, Michelle (:

Spotlight: Shu Uemura UV Underbase Mousse POREraser

Hi people! So last time this was one of my items in my Shu Uemura Super Collection day (only a super collection in my eyes) and I wanted to highlight it and make this one stand out cause it's probably one of my favourite products! And that is the UV Underbase Mousse POREraser!

Yeah this is the same picture of when I did my super collection day but it's okay, you guys don't really care do you? Okay so what it's supposed to do is its a mousse formula that minimizes pores and provides some kind of sun protection. So the interesting thing is that it can be used as either a primer or a foundation. BUT when I go to apply it, it's very very very sheer so it's probably better as a primer. But do you really want to pay so much for a primer? Nope! So I use it as my foundation/skin base when I have less breakouts and when its summer. That is because I found that if you use this product on dry skin, it can sometimes accentuate the dryness and cause flaking. So either use a moisturizer as a primer for this when you have dry skin, or use this when you're sweating and oily even though that sounds gross. One of the great things about this product is that it's a mousse so its very light and fun to play with because there's not a lot of mousse primer/foundations out there in my opinion. Honestly guys, I have a couple more research papers to write so this was a spontaneous thing and I'm going to keep it short.

PRO: 

- light

- a little goes a long way

- more than one option of use

- minimize pores

- provide relative sun protection

CON:

- expensive

- sheer

- not necessarily for dry skin people

So you make a judgement for yourself. Do you want this product? I like it but I got it as a gift and its not as cheap where I live compared to where I bought it (on vacation). The choice is yours :) 

Oh Jaclyn Hill

Oh hey just one more thing to whoever's reading this, I highly highly highly highly recommend going on YouTube and searching up "Jaclyn Hill"! She is one of the most amazing YouTube beauty gurus and I swear, I watch one of her videos a day even though she doesn't post daily. For some reason I just love hearing her voice and how weird she is! TMI? Yeah probably..... Well whatever, the point is that you should go subscribe to her on YouTube, follow her on Instagram, follow her on Twitter, visit her website, whatever you want to do! She is a professional makeup artist who worked for MAC for 4 years and she just recently stopped doing freelance work, I think she does a lot of photoshoots now! Well regardless again, her makeup tutorials are great and even if they look a little dramatic to you, you just need to adjust them to your own preferences! SHE. IS. AMAZE-BALLS.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Jaclynhill1
http://instagram.com/jaclynhill
https://twitter.com/Jaclynhill
http://www.jaclynhillmakeup.com/

Sleek MakeUP Oh So Special Palette - First Impression!

Hi people! Okay so it's been a long time since my last review on... Maybelline Eye Studio gel liner? Well, I just finished my AP biology exam this morning so after sitting around after school, I decided to write something different for people, like my first impressions! Okay so today's palette is a little different and it's called the iDivine Oh So Special Palette by Sleek MakeUP. My sister actually came back from London a little over a week ago and she brought this, among other things, back for me (I had to research and put in a request!) so I was and still am pretty excited about this! Let's get started...

General Info: Sleek MakeUP is a brand that originated in the UK. I asked my sister to buy it for me from Superdrug in London but Superdrug is a drugstore place so this is pretty much a drugstore item. For those of us who don't live in the UK, you can buy it online at Sleek's official website (here) and if you're one of those gals who like online shopping, then this is great. 

Packaging: Sleek's iDivine palette collection all have black sleek cases like this even though the box outside (not shown here) is slightly different per palette. By looking online, I thought this would be a huge palette like Urban Decay Naked Palette size but I was so off! It's about the size of my hand which makes it great and easy to throw into my bag if I were to do touch ups and whatnot.

 This is what the inside of the palette looks like. As you can see, there's a pretty big mirror (sorry about the ceiling fan) and then the 12 shadows on the bottom. In this palette, we have Bow, Pamper, Organza, Gateau, Ribbon, The Mail, Gift Basket, Boxed, Glitz, Wrapped Up, Celebrate and Noir.

As you can see from below, this palette really is brand new. Sleek tends to make their eyeshadows with a grid look when they're brand new so if you look really close, it's untouched!

Let's go over the shadows individually...

Bow - matte light tan colour (can be considered skin colour for fair-skinned ladies)

Pamper - matte bubble gum pink

Organza - metallic pink

Gateau - metallic lavender

Ribbon - matte coral, reminds me of MAC Free to Be

The Mail - matte camel colour (what I call true tan)

Gift Basket - metallic bronze

Boxed - matte light brown

Glitzed - metallic "cerulean frost"*

Wrapped Up - matte dark chocolate/cocoa/coffee (dark brown) colour

Celebrate - metallic "byzantium" colour*

Noir - matte black

* = sorry, I had to go through a colour dictionary to find out how exactly you can describe it, it gets boring if you call everything light or dark!

So I'm still a pretty bad swatcher.... but I got the job done and I put in some extra effort with the words this time! I think my swatches were good but my camera didn't capture them properly! In this photo, I got a picture of the majority of the shades EXCEPT although pamper is light, it's not that light! It's a beautiful almost baby pink shade that I plan on using sometime! 

Because my hand makes the shades around my thumb look awful, i retook them from side view! 

And this one below is Celebrate, it looked bad in all photos because it was on my index knuckle which is probably the most cracked and dry out of my entire hand.. Here is looks somewhat brown but it's actually a metallic dark purple (thats what byzantium is)!

GOSH I really love those colours! Looking at the colours in itself, you can create soooooo many different looks with this palette! All of the colours are great in pigmentation (although the Bow and Pamper aren't as pigmented compared to the others) and when you touch it, the eyeshadows feel buttery! Not powdery or chalky but buttery! Overall.... IM SO EXCITED TO PLAY AROUND WITH THIS PALETTE!!

xoxo, Michelle

Maybelline EyeStudio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner in Blackest Black

Hello random reader who happens to stumble upon my blog (or it could be Jenika), I've decided to do a spontaneous review of the Maybelline EyeStudio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner and I have the "shade" Blackest Black (is black a shade?) I promise this post has less writing than last time!

Okay I opened the lid and this is what I got: ITS PERFECT AHHHHH sorry I'm weird but I love how its completely untouched and its a perfect little product. Unlike eyeshadows, you can easily tell whether or not a gel liner has been used (woohoo mine hasn't!)

So even though it's in the glass jar, you're actually only getting this much product. After using the eyeliner, man I can tell why people can really love it! It's a nice and creamy formula that goes on the lid (and hand) really well and has amazing pigmentation, this truly is blackest black. 

 It comes with an applicator! It's not my favourite thing in the world because I prefer a slanted eyeliner brush when it comes to my gel eyeliner but it would get the job done if you didn't have one.

Okay so I used three different brushes to see how the application would go. On the furthest left, I used the RealTechniques angled brow brush (sorry, not for my brows) then in the middle I used a brush that I got at Sasa in Hong Kong and then on the right is the applicator that comes with the eyeliner.

Wow lighting change! Well as you can see, the lines are all completely different but the product itself is the same. The RealTechniques line does have the extreme pigmentation in a single line but since it's relatively soft, there's a softer edge around the eyeliner that I don't necessarily care for. Then my Sasa brush created a nice and thick line with good pigmentation and no softness but I screwed up the straightness of it. Then the applicator on the right has a thin line but I find that the applicator got put on too much product right away on the top part of my line so I tried using it to distribute the product which led to the faded line. Meh.

The eyeliner claims to be smudgeproof and waterproof. Okay so I didn't test out the waterproof.... BUT it's definitely not smudge proof! I suggest putting black eyeshadow with the same slanted eyeliner brush to set the liner and make sure it doesn't crease or anything. Pressed/translucent powder might work too!

This product is almost always compared to the Bobbi Brown one which I haven't tried but honestly, this one is so much more worth it. This Maybelline one is about a quarter of the Bobbi Brown one and you're essentially getting the same thing. Most of the time, high-end-ish products end up nothing like drugstore ones but Maybelline does a pretty good job overall. Okay here's the end! So overall, I really like this product. It goes on really creamily (if that's a word) and has amazing black pigmentation in my opinion. 

xoxo, Michelle