Old NYX Eyeshadow Singles

Hello again readers!

I have a few of the old-packaging NYX Eyeshadow Singles. You can still find some in the clearance bins, and for about a dollar or so you can pick one up. Not a bad price, and if you can find a shade you've been looking for or want to try, it's worth it.

Also, bear with me while I work with the watermark... I had someone steal my photos a while back, and I don't want it to happen again.

Mellow Yellow: Matte yellow. I don't wear it on my lids, I actually use this as a blush. It's odd, but I really enjoy the colour it gives my face.

Black: Matte black. Nothing special, but I enjoy it. 

Sensual: A brown-toned burgundy shimmer. Not as pigmented as I'd like it to be, but it's nice.

 Frosted Ocean: Blackened Blue Shimmer. Least favourite that I've bought. It's patchy and I had to go over it many times. 

Irises: Bright blue. This is the one I was hunting down, and I love it!

Nude: Basic neutral. It has a shimmer to it, which is refreshing in a way. I was afraid it'd be matte.

Cherry: A cherry pink. It's not really quite a red, but it's not really a pink either. A nice medium. Good for blending out red eyeshadows.

Dark Brown: Not as dark s you'd think, just a nice brown. Great to have in a collection.

I haven't bought any of the new eyeshadow singles that have replaced these in the round packaging, but it's bound to happen in the near future. I wonder how much they have changed on these formula wise.

Thanks for reading!

Wet n Wild MegaLast Matte Lipsticks

Hello again readers!

Going through photos, I realized that I had so many swatches of lipsticks, without the names attached, and since I have so many (19. I have 19... ) Though they're not new, I thought, why not just put them all in one post?

So, I present to you the  19/28 Permanent MegaLast Lipsticks from Wet n Wild:

I can't help but to love these lipsticks! They are a matte lipstick, two dollars, and they aren't too drying on the lips. The formula is consistent through most of the shades, and there are so many colours to choose from! 

The only two downsides I have, is that if you haven't bought the lipsticks recently, they won't have the shade name on the label. For me, this isn't a huge deal since I remember which ones are which, but if you are someone with a large lipstick collection having only the number will be frustrating.

The other issue is the packaging. I love these lipsticks, but the packaging is a bit of a fail for me. The clear cap of the tube gets dirty quickly, and though it's great so you can see the shade, you can also see all the lipstick that gets smeared on the inside too.

Pinks:

Just Peachy: a bright peach-toned pink. I didn't think I would like it as much as I do, but it's beautiful and perfect for spring and summer.

Think Pink: light pink. Definitely a must have if you love pinks that are good for everyday wear.

Rose-Bud: Rose pink. 

Pinkerbell: Barbie Pink. This one is much brighter in person, almost neon sometimes. It's really attention grabbing, but surprisingly wearable.

Don't Blink Pink: a cool-toned medium pink.

Smokin' Hot Pink: a dusty medium pink.

Oranges and Browns:

24 Carrot Gold: Orange! Can you believe it, this lipstick is fantastic. It leans more to the coral side, but it's so beautiful on the lips. 

Purty Persimmon: Red-Orange. If you're not willing to wear basically straight-up orange, then this is a good alternative to dabble in the orange lipstick trend, without going too crazy.

Coral-ine: The name says it all, a coral lipstick. Not too red, but not too orange either. A great mix.

Spiked with Rum: This is a brown-toned red that I was really worried to wear, but it looks surprisingly good on my lips. Great for fall.

Mocha-licious: warm brown. I can't wear this shade at all. It makes me look a bit like a corpse, and it's just not flattering at all. 

Reds:

Spotlight Red: Cool-toned Pinup Red, really the best way to describe these. A classic red to add to your collection. Can't go wrong with this shade.

Red Velvet: blue-toned cherry red.

Cherry Picking: Berry Red. I wasn't as fond as this one as I thought, even though it's cool toned. It's just not that wonderful on my lips as I hoped.

Vamps:

Sugar Plum Fairy: Berry Pink. Surprisingly, though I'm not fun of Cherry Picking, I love this one! Not too dark, but not light either. Great for stepping into the fall trend without going too dark.

Cinnamon Spice: Brick Red. I didn't expect to like this one as much as I did, but it looks so great. It would look even better if you have a bit of a tan.

Ravin' Raisin: Warm plum. I was instantly so in love with this. It was my first violet lipstick and I just can't get enough of it.

Cherry Bomb: Oxblood Red. Really when you want a red lip, but you want it to be extra intense. This shade was a little dryer to apply.

Vamp It Up: Blackened Violet. This lipstick had single-handedly destroyed my love for black lipsticks. It's dark, without the void-look of black. It's such a beautiful lipstick, that just looks fantastic.

There are a few that I want to still buy:  Bare it All, Dollhouse Pink, Wine Room, In the Flesh, Mauve Outta Here.... and the limited edition ones. What can I say, I really love the formula, and the colour selection presents you with pinks, oranges, reds, brows, and violets! At two dollars a pop, why not try all the ones you can get your hands on, or stick with your comfort zone of the colours you know you'll love. :) 

Wet n Wild Swatch Spam

Hello again readers!

When I have free time, I've been going through my monster folder in my computer of swatches that got shoved in there for 'safekeeping'. Meaning they've been sitting on my computer collecting dust for ages!

Today, I have a few swatches of some of the Wet n Wild polishes, both the Wild Shine and the Beauty Benefits.

Frank is Mine is an electric green that came out during Halloween season of 2013. I saw it, and I couldn't resist adding it to my collection. I was really disappointed though, that it needs at least three coats, and even then you can still see the nail bed. This would be better suited to layer over a lighter green, maybe even white, but worn by itself unless you do a nail tip it's just not cutting it. This was with three coats.

Eggplant Frost is a beautiful duochrome polish. It has a red violet base, with a blue violet shimmer. Absolutely gorgeous, and a colour that I find myself wanting to grab again when I'm out shopping, but I can contain myself because I have this beauty. This almost applied in one coat, but I used two to even it out.

The next few polishes are from their Beauty Benefit line that you can find in dollar stores. Unfortunately, none of them have names, which makes it hard for you to track down if you fancy them.

When I saw this colour, I HAD to have it. It's a beautiful grey-taupe shimmer. I had a Maybelline polish like this forever ago that dried up, and I'm glad to have a replacement in my collection. It does show brush strokes, but they are less noticeable in person. This applied in two coats.

The next is a pale, dusty blue shimmer. This one also shows brush strokes, and I noticed that the formula for this polish was a little runnier than the others. It got all over the place and was a little hard to control. This applied in three coats.

This is a nice royal blue, with shimmer. This polish had a little issue, where it would pool in the cuticles. Even clean up was a bit of a nightmare because when I'd clean it up, more would come.  This polish does show brush strokes, but they aren't as noticeable in real life. This polish applied in two coats.

This polish is a dusty violet taupe. It's a strange colour, but it looks good on the nail. This polish showed brushstrokes, but they weren't as noticeable in real life. I used two coats for the photo.

The last one I picked up was a berry shimmer. This is the only polish out of the ones that I have bought, that didn't have brush strokes after applying. This went on like a dream, as it was easy to control. I used two coats for the photo.

Thanks for reading!

Battle of the Eyeshadow Primers

Hello again readers!

I love being able to try new makeup products, nothing beats being able to test out a new product to see if you'll fall in love with it, or if you'll hate it. I've tested my fair share of eye primers, and after using a primer for the first time, I can never go back! Of course, not all of them are created equal, so I compared the ones I have to see which ones are really worth your money, and which ones are better worth a trip to the bin.

For the shadow, I used the dark green eyeshadow from Forever 21. I love the shade, but without a primer it just will never reach it's true potential. I applied it with my ELF Essential Eyeliner Brush, and left it on my arm for 8 hours.

The competitors:

ELF Eyelid Primer – Original

ELF Eyelid  Primer – Pearl

Wet n Wild Fergie Take on the Day Primer – Original

Wet n Wild Fergie Take on the Day Primer – Shimmer

Milani Eyeshadow Primer

Hard Candy Eyeshadow Primer

NYX HD Eyeshadow Base

Urban Decay Primer Potion – Original

Too Faced Shadow Insurance – Original

I put them in order with the (C)ontrol being the shadow by itself.

Obviously right out of the gate, they all look very brilliant, aside from E1, and F1, that look duller than the rest, and C which was almost completely rubbed off.

The next is after 8 hours of wear:

Clearly there is a lot of fading present in all of the swatches, which isn't surprising at all.

I have separated them into three categories: Low, Medium, and High Performance Categories.

Low  Perfomance:

Elf Eyelid Primer – Original

Elf Eyelid Primer – Pearl

Both of these primers are better than no primer at all, but only by a little. E2 started out looking brighter, but ended up fading the most. Out of the two, I will stick with E1 for swatches.

Medium Performance:

Wet n Wild Fergie Take on the Day Primer – Shimmer

Milani Eyeshadow Primer 

These both had better wear, but not as great as the higher performance products. They faded, but still retained color and shimmer well. I was surprised with Milani as I've heard many times that it's a dupe for the Urban Decay Primer Potion, but clearly that is not true.

High Performance:

Wet n Wild Fergie Take on the Day Primer – Original

Hard Candy Eyeshadow Primer 

NYX HD Eyeshadow Base 

Urban Decay Primer Potion – Original

Too Faced Shadow Insurance – Original

I was really impressed with how many did well. I found that the higher end products did hold up (as they should, since they are so expensive), and I was really impressed that the Fergie primer did as well as it did, since it's so cheap. They held color and shimmer for 8 hours.

I hope that this helped some of you make decisions on some of the products you're interested in.

Thanks for reading!

2014 Empties #1

Hello again readers!

I'm doing something I haven't done before, and I'm going to post this round of empties here. There's a lot of them this time, so let's get started.

Asterisks are products that I would repurchase, or have repurchased.

Makeup/Face Wipes

-Exfoliating Facial Wipes - Empty*

-Stila Ready for Take Off Makeup Removing Wipes - Empty (Review Coming Soon)

-Neutrogena Makeup Removing Wipes- Empty*

-Global Beauty Care Retinol Face Wipes - Empty*

-Clean & Clear Makeup Dissolving Facial Cleaning Wipes -  Empty - Didn't like these at all. Didn't remove my makeup, or make my skin feel clean. A flop.

Body and Nails

-Softsoap Ultra Rich Shea Butter and Almond Oil Body Wash - Empty. Really disappointed with this one really, i bought it as a replacement for my beloved Dial Shea and Almond body wash, but the scent is SO soapy (hilarious, really) that it's just not good.

-Swan Nail Polish Remover - Empty*

-Bath and Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar Body Wash - Empty

-L.A. Colors Nail Peach Nail Polish Remover Pads - Empty - They remove nail polish, but they leave an oily film on your fingers afterwards.

-Olay Ultra Moisture Body Wash - Empty

-Funky Fingers Crackle Polish - Old and won't stop separating no matter how much I shake it.

-Bath and Body Works Market Apple Antibacterial Gel - Empty*

-Nivea Soft Moisturizing Cream - Empty*

Hair

-Sunsilk Straighten Up - Old

-Finesse ReVitality Volumize and Correct Conditioner - Empty*

-Aussie High Hold + High Shine Maximum Hold Hair Spray - Empty

-Daily Defense Argan Oil Conditioner - Empty

-Garnier Fructis XXL Volume Strong Hold Gel - Empty

Face

 -Clean & Clear Acne Control Moisturizer - Old*

-ELF Makeup Mist and Set - Empty

-ELF Lip Exfoliator - Empty*

-ELF Zit Zapper - Empty*

-Neutrogena Oil-Free Moisturizer SPF 15 -  Empty - Hated this. It dried my skin out and at the same time made it look incredibly greasy.

-ELF Green Tea and Tea Tree Blotting Sheets - Empty - I got these in a set of three forever ago, in a set for 3 dollars, and they aren't worth the money. The regular sheets that are twice as big as these, give you more for less.

Face Makeup

-Revlon Colorstay Ivory Foundation - Empty*

-ELF Tone Correcting Powder - Empty

-Wet n Wild Light/Medium Eyebrow Kit - Empty

-Covergirl Clean Ivory Foundation - Empty

-Hard Candy Glamoflauge Concealer - Old

-Hard Candy Glamoflauge Concealer Pencil - Empty - Better used if you have tattoos that need to be outlined before covering up. Not the greatest for drawing over small blemishes.

-Wet n Wild Taupe Eyeliner - Empty* - Used this for my brows. I have another backup I need to use up as well.

-Essence Light Brown Eyebrow Pencil - Empty - This was way too warm for my brows and made my brows look terrible. 

Eye Makeup

 -NYX HD Eyeshadow Base - Old* - I used this for my comparison post (Coming soon) that I photographed a couple of weeks ago, but I can't keep using this any longer. 

-Maybelline Falsies Waterproof Mascara - Dried Up*

-Jordana Best Lash Extreme Mascara - Dried Up*

-ELF Mascara Duo - Dried Up

-Elf Volumizing and Lengthening Mascara - Old

-NYC Liquid Eyeliner - Dried Up

-Wet n Wild Teal Liquid Eyeliner - Old

-Sugar ColorStick - Old

-Hot Topic Baked Eyeshadow - Old

-Wet n Wild Cream Eyeliner - Dried Up

-Jordana Black Easyliner - Empty*

-Avon Navy Eyeliner - Empty

Lip Makeup

-Lip Smacker Cupcake Balm - Empty - I won't be purchasing more Lip Smacker balms, because I don't find them moisturizing enough, and I can't stand that Lip Smacker undertone that all of their balms have. It didn't work for me at all.

-Revlon Cherry Tart Lip Butter - Not a fan of this product. I love the color, but when it started drying through the day the glitter in the product would irritate my lips.

-Wet n Wild Black Orchid Silk Finish Lipstick - Old

-NYX Tea Rose and Chaos Circle Lipstick - Old* - These both turned into a melting, liquidy mess since the formula changed over time. I have repurchased Chaos, but not Tea Rose.

-Bare Minerals Sprinkles Lip Gloss - Old - Not a fan of this, and the formula and scent have changed into an even goopier, smelly mess.

-ELF Sweet Salmon Glossy Gloss - Leaking

What a purge, right? So many old products finding their way into the bin, and so many empties being thrown out to make room in the bag! It's been hectic, and I'm glad to see these go (for the most part).

Thanks for reading!

August Favourites

Hello  again readers!

Another month has come and gone. Honestly, August has been the worst month for me. I had my wisdom taken out during the first week, and then afterwards I was in bed in pain, and then I got steroids for my mouth since it wasn't healing properly, and then to top it off I got really sick. I have been coughing and blowing my nose for weeks! It's really frustrating, but I got through it. 

Now, onto the part you really care about. :)

August Top 10

Clean & Clear Dual Action Moisturizer:

I had always liked this moisturizer, because it just works so well with my skin. I get the moisture that I need, and it doesn't make me go crazy with oils from my skin. I like using both this, and the acne control (for mornings), but since I have been blowing my nose so often, I have had a lot of dry skin on my nose and cheeks. This really helps keep my skin happier.

ELF Daily Brush Cleaner: 

I am in love with this product. Especially when I've been going a little crazy with colours for my eyes. It's so easy to just spray on the brush and rub it against a towel to get a new start, without taking the time to wash it completely and wait a few hours for the brush to dry. Instant gratification, and so cheap!

NYX Butter Gloss - Maple Blondie:

These glosses are by far my favourites, and I always find myself using them. I've been really reaching for this one in particular, because it's such a nice warm pink! Not too overwhelming, and a brighter colour for just the right amount of attention.

Revlon Lip Butter - Gumdrop:

I really wish light violets were more common in the makeup world, because I love this! It's a beautiful pale violet, with a slight amount of shimmer. It can be really sheer, or I can add another layer or two for a more pigmented colour. It looks great, and I am going to be a little sad when it's gone.

NYC Bronzer - Sunny:

A popular bronzer, for a good reason. It's a little warm, but I do enjoy using this for contouring my face since it's matte and it's not as overwhelming since the colour is light. I can make it work for me, and it goes on beautifully.

Stila All Over Shimmer Liquid Illuminizer - Pink Shimmer:

I still haven't found the best way to apply this, but I am enjoying the colour so much. I'm not a fan of cream/liquid products for the face, but the pink illumination goes in so well with my blushers, and it's a nice addition.

ELF Makeup Remover Pen:

I didn't like this at first, but now it's a lifesaver! I like using this for cleaning up my brows, and my eye makeup before I go in with a concealer to really keep it as clean as possible. Great for when waterproof products need to be budged, and concealers just aren't good enough.

Maybelline Color Tattoo - Inked in Pink:

I've been going with softer looks since I've been so down in health, and this product adds a perfect pop of colour to my lids without being overwhelming at all. Easy to blend up into the crease, and stays looking great all day.

Chapstick - Cake Batter:

I reach for this all the time, and so glad I have multiples. A perfect chapstick for adding in much-needed moisture to my lips, and the taste is phenomenal. Just like vanilla cake!! I just apply this whenever I feel the need, and it's so trusty.

Milani HD Concealer - Light:

A little sad to see this discontinued, but I can see why. I like this for all over my face when my skin is really good, or for cleaning up my eye makeup. It's a colour that fits perfectly with my skintone, and I reach for it every day that I wear  makeup. Sad when this is gone. :(