Eye of the Day with DuWop Payoff

Lately I've been making an effort to take a picture of my makeup every day... Now I have a ton of eyeball pictures to post! I think with all this practice I'm starting to get the hang of taking makeup pictures.
Thought I'd post today's since I'm using the DuWop Payoff I just got and the memory is still fresh in my mind.



Took a million pictures of this one to try to show the neat red sparkle in Bare Escentuals Cherry Coco Truffle!

This is:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Half Elf Hottie on lid (mixed with DuWop Payoff and applied wet)
Bare Escentuals Cherry Coco Truffle in crease and lower lashline (mixed with DuWop Payoff and applied wet)
Fyrinnae Finnegan's Wake as highlight
MAC Blacktrack Fluidline
Urban Decay 24/7 in Zero
Cover Girl Lash Blast

So... this Payoff stuff. I used it yesterday with liner and today with my shadow. I like it but I'm not seeing much of a difference between it and MAC Water Based Mixing Medium. Well, I do see one big difference- the price! DuWop Payoff is $17 for .25 oz and MAC is $18 for 1.7 oz. I haven't compared ingredients yet as my MAC bottle seems to be lacking an ingredients label... but for that price maybe they should change the name to DuWop Ripoff... Kidding, kidding. It's not bad at all, just overpriced- you get nearly 2 ounces of the MAC for only $1 more... A bit more economical, don't you think?

That Bare Escentuals shadow has a really pretty pink-red sparkle to it that I tried to capture. I find that the red sparkle doesn't show up unless I apply this wet, and I hate applying crease colors wet for lots of reasons... But luckily this shade is easier to blend after applying wet than most I've tried.

I think it even brings out the color of my eyes a little... Sometimes I wonder, "what color?" as my eyes seem mostly black to me.... But this seems to compliment dark eyes and even pull out a few warm reddish golden tones that I don't usually see. Yay!

Also tried out the sample of Stila One Step Makeup that came in my Sephora order yesterday... I think I like it! It's smooth and not very heavy and has a nice silicone texture like primer. I'll have to see if it makes me break out. I haven't been wearing foundation lately. This shade might be too dark for me though.

One more note- Shiseido eyelash curler is amazing. I'm never going back to Shu. I'll post about that later.
I'll have to remember to keep posting these, I did a really pretty taupe look on Sunday that I liked and I want to show you!

Misa What I Like About You Collection Fall 2010

Swatching is always a good excuse for interrupting a wear-time experiment... heh. Oh well. I was bored and these were more interesting than waiting for my polish to chip!

Misa's fall 2010 collection is quite a relief for me. It seems their last three collections (all cremes!) had lost that creative Misa personality that we all love. While these shades aren't super unique, they're at least interesting and remind me of all those old gorgeous Misa shades that made me fall in love with the brand (like Chocolate Icing, Blueberry Glaze, Toxic Seduction, you know the ones!).



It's You! How are you gentlemen! Haha, sorry couldn't resist. But seriously, this polish is actually called "It's You!" I can see this being the nail polish equivalent of "Who's On First?". This shade looked like a smoky green with copper duochrome in the promo picture, but it's not. It's a deep grey base- not quite black- more soft charcoal, with green pearl shimmer and subtle pink duochrome. The first picture shows the green, the second picture shows the pink from a different angle. You may need to click to enlarge. It's like a less-frosty, less-duochrome cousin of Borghese Stellare Notte. Maybe like Jessica Casablanca and Stellare Notte had a baby?

Like It Like That. A bright metallic green with blue duochrome. My pictures make it look more blue toned, but it's much more yellow toned golden green- like bright grass- and blue around the edges in real life. It's sort of a cross between Bloom Bianca and Sally Hansen Lagoon but much more green. It has the depth of Bianca but the smooth metallic finish of Lagoon with the blue/green duochrome effect of both, but a lot more green than blue. Very pretty. You may need to see this in real life to get the full effect.

Perfect Kiss. Standard medium magenta shimmer. Lots of light reflecting shimmer particles give a lot of depth to this color. Other than that, not particularly noteworthy.


Quirky Smile. Very pretty teal shimmer. I'm growing very fond of teal lately. This is a little deeper in real life, but I wanted to get a good picture of the shimmer in direct sunlight so it got washed out a little. Sort of reminds me of peacock feathers.


Spinning Out Of Control. Blue-purple shimmer. This looks more purple in the bottle, but when applied I find that it's more blue than purple. It's like blue with purple shimmer. Blurple... is this considered 'blurple'? Man, what a weird word. I think my picture still makes it look more blue than it really is, but it's totally not as purple-y as I thought it would be. Makes me think of Borghese Plumaggio Purple, that one seems more blue than purple on the nail than in the bottle too.

When You Say My Name. Last but definitely not least. A deep, rich shimmery brown. My favorite kind of brown. Look at it. It's so beautiful. It seems red-based, but neutral. Is that possible? It's not super warm like a lot of browns. Maybe this is even a cool brown. I don't know. I'm not so good at the warm/cool thing but it doesn't seem strongly cool or warm on me. It's just really pretty and really sparkly. Excellent fall color. Love it.


The formula was good on these. A little thin but easy to control without too much of a tendency to pool. Opacity was really good too, all of these are two coats except It's You! which is three and I feel it really needed the third coat. Standard Misa brush- a little on the long side, thin, round. Slightly long dry time.

I really like Misa bottles... there's something about them. They're so square and strong and uniform but still elegant. They line up so nicely in drawers and on racks... They look really special. Random, I know, but I was reminded of that when I was swatching these. Haven't swatched Misa in quite some time. Which reminds me that I still need to post the Mardi Gras summer collection, but I need to finish the pictures. They were really finicky to capture! I'll get to those soon.

Overall, I like this Misa collection. I had been pretty disappointed with the last couple of collections due to the lack of variety and unoriginality of the colors, but this collection has renewed my faith in Misa to make nice colors! I was really hoping they could re-capture the amazingness of the Poisoned Passion collection from fall 2008, which in my eyes was practically a perfect collection. While this isn't quite as perfect (in my eyes, at least!) as Poisoned Passion was, it does come close and this is definitely a nice selection of shades- I love every color but Perfect Kiss. I just wish Misa would bring back all of their amazing duochromes (or maybe do some new ones)! That's what got me started on Misa in the first place and I think they excelled at them.

(These were sent to me for review.)

Ode to Black Eyeliner

I ♥ you, Urban Decay Zero 24/7 eyeliner.

(Was cleaning out my vanity a couple weeks ago and found these!)

Eye of the Day, HIP shadow duos and holo/duochrome layering

I am still way behind on my nail polish posting, but posting little pictures of my eye of the day and doing makeup reviews is refreshing. It's made me feel somewhat recharged and more excited about blogging again. I still have to finish my OPI Switzerland swatches and I do feel kinda bad about not getting the Nubar Venetian Glass or Misa Mardi Gras collections posted yet, though. But I will. So. Anyway. Makeup.

This was my eye of the day on Wednesday. I wanted to try out the HIP Gilded duo and this is what I ended up with, which I think turned out rather pretty:




This is:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
HIP Gilded duo (gold on lid, dark shade in crease and on lower lashline)
Fyrinnae Nijiro to highlight
Fyrinnae STFU (how awesome is that?) with MAC Water Based Mixing Medium as liner
Urban Decay 24/7 Zero
Dying tube of Cover Girl Lash Blast
And I think I used Urban Decay Lash Primer Potion too but I can't remember for sure.

The gold is really excellent. Like the silver it's soft, smooth, pigmented and very shiny/reflective. Perfect gold metallic. Very impressive. This is more of a yellow-warm gold, though, and while I do love this one I'd also like a lighter neutral gold too. Maybe they already have one, my local HIP displays are really disheveled and picked over.

The other half of the duo is very nice with the gold, a perfect compliment. It's a... dark... I'm not sure... I want to say it's blackened green. It looks greenish, but mostly black. So a blackened green with little flecks of gold shimmer. Very pretty. The gold flecks don't show up that well, though.

I picked up a few more of these L'Oreal HIP shadows cause I think I love them. That, and they were buy two get $5.00 off at Meijer. Here's what I have now:

Charged, which is fecking AMAZING. It reminds me a little bit of one of my favorite shadow duos of all time- MAC Heat/Element. This is different, but also... better. The copper is so shiny and perfect and the darker rust shade is absolutely perfect with it, it reminds me of Fyrinnae Fire Opal a little because it has a smoky deep base with glints of metallic red/copper gleaming through.


Darling. I haven't used this one yet. I tried to use a little of the lighter shade the other day but it didn't seems as nice or silky like the other ones. It seemed a little hard and flaky. When I do use this I'll report back.

Gilded, which is what I used. Perfection.


Platinum, also perfection.

I think I posted a picture of the Electrified duo already. That one rocks too.

I took this picture in blinding sunlight and I thought it turned out kind of cool. I'm in the process of blinking, kinda goofy but I think it looks neat.

I'm thinking Nijiro is a little to light and frosty for a highlight color for me. Must experiment more.

And just so it's not all makeup, here's a really old nail of the day picture. I think this might even be from last June O_o


It's one coat of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Garnet Lapis over OPI Designer Series Glamour. It's a holo-duochrome! This looks really amazing in real life, you have to try it. Layer any sheer duochrome (Sally Hansen Nail Prisms and Ozotic duochromes are perfect for this) over a nice strong holo polish. Mesmerizing. Too bad I couldn't catch more of the duochrome (and yes, 'duochrome' is used loosely) effect in my pictures.

Rescue Beauty Lounge Fall 2010 Collection - Real Housewives of the Tudor Dynasty!

I'm so excited about these. A couple words on the inspiration behind the collection and then some swatches!

This year's fall collection, according to the press release, is inspired by the wives of Henry VIII and the iridescent thread of the brocade fabrics they wore. I'm not an expert on Henry like a few of my friends are, so I don't feel qualified to comment too much, but I think that's pretty awesome. Gruesome, perhaps, but totally awesome.

I can totally see the brocade influence in these. They're all soft, rich colors with tons of iridescent speckles running through them. Very complex, very gorgeous.

Now, swatches! And please excuse the paper cut on the ring finger of my right hand. I tried to hide it and I know it looks gory! Sorry!

Anne. I think Anne is the most complex of the set, it seems to have the most things going on in there! The base color is a deep olive green with some gold shimmer. Then there's tons of little specks of iridescent/rainbowy shimmer, flashy pink shimmer and purple/fuchsia microglitter. Click the indoor pics to enlarge them and check out the microglitter!! I think the ring finger shows it the best. This is not a dupe of Zoya Edyta or Nubar Verde. Much different finish, more subtle particles, less dull, more colors.

Catherine. There are two Catherines in this set and this one is inspired by Catherine of Aragon. This color has a slight red-based purple base with fine golden shimmer, think OPI Catherine the Grape but not as strongly red toned. Then there's a layer of superfine iridescent shimmer, followed by the fuchsia microglitter from Anne and a little bit of teal/blue microglitter. The microglitter in this one isn't as obvious as in Anne, but it's still a nice touch.


Catherine H, which is of course inspired by Catherine Howard. My picture is making this color look more saturated than it is. It's a deep but very dusty periwinkle type blue. Not really teal like in the first picture, more soft and muted and subdued like the second picture. Indoor picture is much more accurate but doesn't show the shimmer as much. Slight purple tinge. It's supposed to be Wedgwood Blue and that's exactly what it reminds me of. That matte blue surface. It's accented by subtle fine gold shimmer and a bit of that pretty superfine iridescent shimmer. It seems like there's a tiny bit of that purple and aqua microglitter in the bottle but I don't see it strongly on the nail.


Jane. A muted putty-grey with very subtle gold-green-pink shimmer. The shimmer is very fine and is almost a secret shimmer in this polish because it's so light. You can see it strongly in the bottle- a putty with strong light green and gold shimmer- but it's more subtle on the nail. Unless I need to shake it or something! It's the least shimmery of the four polishes. Somewhat reminiscent of the Rescue classic Grunge.

You can see all the different types of shimmer in the bottles pretty well:
And actually... I should have taken a picture of the back of the bottle instead so the shimmer isn't obscured by the label. Let me do that. I'll probably post better bottle pictures later.

I don't know if these are in formula or not because they're press samples only, but I had no issues at all with application. Two coats was great for all but Jane which needed three. They didn't smell like the normal Rescue formula so I'm thinking they might not be, but I don't know for sure.

I really love these. I can't pick a favorite because I love them all. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a gigantic Rescue Beauty Lounge fan. I think these are really gorgeous. Muted fall colors, unique shades, fascinating shimmer. Every single one. Unique. That's kinda Rescue's trademark, funky unique colors, right? Two thumbs up from me. Green, purple, blue and grey, baby!!

I don't know when they'll be available on the website, the press release doesn't seem to give a date. I'd guess there might be a pre-order soon and then a full release like they normally do. You can find the Rescue nail polish fall line online and in their salon in Manhattan when it's out.

(These were sent to me for review.)

In a pyromantic way, I'm her slave....

Living for her to ignite.

My eye of the day today:

Natural light.


Flash.

This is:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
HIP Platinum duo (Silver on lid and lower lashline, black in crease and lower lashline)
Fyrinnae Nijiro to highlight
GOSH Holographic loose glitter all over lid and crease
Fyrinnae Pyromantic Erotica with MAC Water Based Mixing Medium as liner
Urban Decay 24/7 in Zero in waterline and to tightline
Cover Girl Lash Blast Mascara (this tube is on its last legs apparently... yikes)
Urban Decay Brow Box

The liner is duochrome and I think the pictures captured it a little bit. It goes from orange to yellow gold to green and it's pretty amazing. I only have a sample of that shade but now I need a swimming pool full of it!

I'm really disappointed that the GOSH holographic glitter doesn't show up very well in pictures. You'll have to click the pictures to enlarge them and see the little rainbow speckles. It's pretty obvious in real life, especially right now as the sun is setting, it's freakin' AWESOME. I love this stuff. Again, can I have a swimming pool full of this stuff?

Extremely impressed with the HIP shadows... The silver really is the smoothest, shiniest most pigmented chrome silver I have ever used. Better than any MAC or Ben Nye or Urban Decay I've ever used. It's so smooth and silky and super shiny!! Best silver EVER!!!

Lorac Multiplex 3D Lipgloss Swatches and Review

I don't even remember where I first heard about these. I totally missed when they were released at Sephora... I think I just randomly stumbled over a mention of these of Makeup Alley or something... But the minute I heard about them I knew I *had* to have them.

I am a huge duochrome lover. Nail polish, makeup, whatever- if it's duochrome I instantly love it. I was just thinking the other day about these duochrome eyeliners I used to love from Physician's Formula... I went looking for them the other day but I don't think they make them anymore! Bummer. Okay, veering off topic slightly. The gloss. You're supposed to be talking about the gloss, Scrangie. You have the attention span of a fly, I swear. SO! Lorac Multiplex 3D Gloss.... some swatches:

In sunlight and indoors, left to right: Vivid, Cliche, 3D.

Vivid is my favorite of the bunch. It is a warm light pink base with very strong gold, yellow and green duochrome. The duochrome effect seems to be always visible and gets stronger at certain angles and in certain lights. Super super awesome, I'm completely in love with this shade and I want to wear it every day!!

Cliche is an appropriate name for Cliche- it's a medium candy pink with blue duochrome. It has little pearls of silvery shimmer that reflect blue quite strongly but the duochrome isn't is strong as in Vivid. One thing worth noting about Cliche is that it stains. A lot. I wouldn't have expected it from such a light shade of pink, but it will leave your lips stained a pretty shade of pink after it wears off. This is not necessarily a bad thing unless you color outside the lines. It's like a lipgloss with a bonus lip stain built in!

3D is the most subtle of these. It's a sheer copper with pink reflective/slightly duochrome sparkles. They're a little bit like MAC Dazzleglass sparkles but they seem bigger and more defined. Not gritty or glittery either for such large particles. Almost takes on a rose-gold look in a lot of lights instead of a copper with contrasting sparkle.

I find that these three particular shades seem to suit my skintone well, with Vivid being the easiest to wear and easiest to coordinate with my eyeshadow. Cliche is very pink and slightly darker than I anticipated it being and I felt a little overdone wearing it with a smoky eye but it looks great with green shadow. 3D seems subtle enough on my lips to go with just about anything.

The formula on these is beautiful. It's thin and silky, no stickiness at all. My hair does still get stuck in it on a windy day, but there's not sticky residue on my lips after it wears off and it washes off my coffee mug easily. Despite the thin texture I find the staying power to be excellent. Thin gloss usually means it wears off quickly, but these pigments really seem to hang on and resist transferring onto things. They're one of the longest wearing glosses I have.

The scent is nice too, it's a subtle kinda... fruity... nondescript pleasant smell? Fruity, almost tropical... Maybe peaches and cream type of scent? I can't seem to pin down a distinct note in it but it's sweet and fruity and a little hint of vanilla seems to be there as well.

The packaging is really beautiful:

It has a black chrome metal cap encased in clear acrylic, a silver hologram band (which is a little scratched already, sadly) and a smooth round tube with beveled edges on the inside of the tube to make it a little bit jewel-like. A little flashy, yeah, but definitely not generic looking! The brush is short and a little on the stiff side but gives me no problems with application.

My favorite thing about the packaging is the wand stem. It's a clear plastic that picks up a little sheer layer of the duochrome pigments and sparkles like a real hologram, it looks amazing:

Click this picture to enlarge it. It's so pretty. It's little touches like this that I really appreciate... It's just packaging but it really makes the product so much more fun to use.

The only thing I don't like about these is the price. They're $22. They're even more expensive than MAC Dazzleglass or Superglass, but at least they're not as much as YSL Golden Gloss. These contain 0.17 fluid ounces of product, and I don't even want to think about the math on that one.

However, having used them for about a week now, I can say I'd definitely purchase these again. I feel that at least Vivid is worth the price for me. It's a shade I'm completely obsessed with now and can see myself wearing all the time. I might even end up finishing it and that's something I don't think I've ever done. Cliche and 3D are cool, but... Vivid is awesome.

I ordered them online sight unseen and got lucky with these three shades... I'm contemplating getting another one but I'll definitely have to check it out in person first. Anyone else have any of the other shades? Are they super duochromey?

New Color Club Promo Images - Untamed Luxury Fall 2010

I'm sure you've all seen this a million times already, but I'm posting it anyway! I'm definitely looking forward to this set. I love pretty much everything Color Club does.

Pretty in Platinum, Wild Orchid, Positively Posh, Soft As Cashmere, Nothing But Truffle, Jewel of a Girl.

De-Luxe-Cious, Ms. Hautie, Red Velvet, Untamed Luxury, Resort to Red, Snakeskin, Covered in Diamonds (chunky glittery topcoat!)

So far I think I'm liking the looks of Wild Orchid, Positively Posh, Soft as Cashmere, Red Velvet, Untamed Luxury, Snakeskin and the Covered in Diamonds glitter. We'll see if that changes once I see them in person- it usually does!

Preview image of the new Misa collection: What I Like About You

This is more like it! Looks like shimmers to me, maybe even a duochrome? Very excited about this one. Glad to see some variety instead of another set of standard cremes!

EDIT: Forgot to add the text from the press release!

Fall in Love This Fall With Misa Cosmetics’ What I Like About You Collection

July 19, 2010 – Philadelphia, PA. Sometimes it’s easy to know just what you want, but
you’ll immediately know what you need when you lay your eyes on the Misa Cosmetics
What I Like About You Collection, six new shades for fall that plumb the depths of
color intensity. You’ve explored the dark side of romance with the Poisoned Passion
Collection; now fall in love with the ecstasy that love can provide through these dare-
you-to-look-away glimmering hues. Just like a budding affair, these colors will spark
inexplicable emotions and near-obsessive thoughts. Go ahead—indulge your deepest
desires!

Fall 2010: What I Like About You Collection

Quirky Smile: Something about his lilted smile lets you know he’s interested…and
this shimmering Prussian blue is no less attention-grabbing. However, this rich shade
invites you into deeper territory—what’s lurking beneath? In this case, you’ll discover a
polish that evokes stormy skies and churning seas, a perfect metaphor for love’s mixed
emotions.

Like It Like That: You can’t avoid feeling upbeat when a relationship is going just right,
or when gazing at nails that are the perfect shade. Just try to block this candy apple
green out of your mind; when you like it like that, why deny yourself the pleasure?

Spinning Out of Control: Sometimes you just can’t control yourself—and you
wouldn’t have it any other way. Embrace that euphoric feeling with a brooding
cobalt blue-violet that says, “Don’t stop this merry-go-round; I’m enjoying the ride!”

It’s You!: Searching for the perfect mate is like searching for the perfect nail polish
shade: When you find it, you know right away. Like a perfect-match partner, this
multilayered iridescent hue offers the best of both worlds: a smoldering forest green shot
through with copper ribbons that glimmer and twinkle perfectly in candlelight.

Perfect Kiss: Don’t blush! When you recognize a good moment, grab what’s yours: the
perfect kiss. A well-planted smooch can provide material for days of daydreaming, and
this vibrant fuchsia is equally fantasy-inspiring. An eye-catching color like this one will
have any man’s lips quivering uncontrollably.

When U Say My Name: Chances are, your man has plenty to say, but nothing is sweeter
than when he whispers your name while in a sweet embrace. Blissfully sink into the
moment while donning this sultry rust, and don’t be afraid to demand, “Say it again!”