Space Cadet-ish Eye of the Day

I absolutely love how this one turned out. It started out as pure frustration and ended up looking gorgeous. And now that I'm looking at these pictures, it reminds me of the different colors in Orly Space Cadet! It wasn't intentional. I must have Space Cadet on the brain.



I tried to get some blur on some of these to show the gorgeous duochromey sparkle in Cat's Eye but I don't think I even remotely captured the beauty of this color.

This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
MAD Minerals Cat's Eye, wet on lid
MAC Deep Purple pigment in crease and lower lashline
Kat Von D liquid liner in Romantico
Laura Geller Wonder Wand highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 in Zero
Cover Girl Lash Blast

Cat's Eye is one of the most gorgeous greens ever. I don't think I'd ever used it before this look... I was going through all of my mineral makeup samples and this caught my eye and I had to try it out. It's amazing. You have to see it in person. It is way more awesome than it looks in my picture. Deep green with olive, gold, teal.

As I said, this started out as extreme frustration. This is one of those days where I had to take off my makeup and start all over. It started out as Cat's Eye on the lid with Fyrinnae Medieval Haunting in the crease, but Medieval Haunting is one of the most frustrating colors I've used... It really seems haunted! It has the uncanny ability to un-blend itself after you've applied it! It is an incredible color in the jar- totally stunning- but no matter what I do I can't apply it well. It's patchy, the shimmer smears and turns green/gold in some spots and totally disappears in others, the black base leaves harsh lines that don't want to blend and it just does weird things on the skin. I don't know what to do. I want to wear it! It's currently in my "for eyeliner use only" pile. I can't get the hang of this one :(

Anyway, after I had to wash off that patchy black nightmare and start over, I decided I didn't want to deal with something finicky, so I reached for MAC Deep Purple Pigment. Hallelujah. I've been using so much indie/mineral makeup lately that I forgot how amazing and effortless to use MAC pigments were. Deep Purple went on like butter, blended like a dream without losing shimmer or intensity and didn't need to be applied wet or over a special base or to be futzed with for 20 minutes just to get it to look right. Man, I love MAC. I want to marry it. They may not have the greatest color selection or cool special effects as indie brands, but you can use them right out of the jar and have them look and apply great without having to jump through all kinds of hoops. That said, I like both, but each for different things.

Orly Cosmic FX Comparisons

Once again I'll out the cart before the horse and post the comparisons before I post the real swatches.

As soon as I saw these I knew they were similar to a some of this year's new releases. The only comparison I haven't done is Out Of This World versus Zoya Julieanne and Mimi- my mom has my bottles of Julieanne and Mimi. (Which she loves, by the way)

EDIT:  Pretty in Dayton has a great comparison with Julieanne! 

Left to right (ring to index): OPI Designer Series Magic, Sally Hansen Ultra HD Laser, Orly Lunar Eclipse.

You can see that they're not quite identical. Minor differences between each of the colors. OPI is the darkest and has the least duochrome, Sally Hansen is the lightest, most sheer and has the most duochrome and the Orly is in between. Orly has good opacity and a good amount of duochrome.

Have a look at the level of sheerness:
Left to right (index to ring)- All one coat- Orly Lunar Eclipse, Sally Hansen Laser, OPI Magic.

Lunar Eclipse, Laser and Magic at two coats. You can see that the OPI is almost entirely opaque with the Orly just slightly more sheer.

Left to right (ring to index) China Glaze Zombie Zest, SpaRitual Optical Illusion, Orly It's Not Rocket Science.

As with the previous one, pretty close but no exact matches. While Optical Illusion and Zombie Zest are definite dupes, It's Not Rocket Science is different- more opaque, more blue, more duochrome.

To show the difference in opacity:
Two coats each of (left to right) Zombie Zest, Optical Illusion, It's Not Rocket Science. You can see how much the Orly stands out here in terms of opacity. Wow.

Left to right (ring to index) Zoya Charla, OPI Catch Me In Your Net, Orly Halle's Comet.

These are all so close it's hard not to call them duplicates, but as you can see in the picture, there are minute differences. Charla is bluest. OPI is lightest. Orly is greenest. Zoya has the most sparkle. Orly seems most opaque but very similar to Zoya. Here's one coat of each:


Left to right, one coat: Zoya Charla, OPI Catch Me In Your Net, Orly Halle's Comet.

I was expecting the Orly ones to be really sheer, but they surprised me by being the most opaque of all! Bonus.

And these were sent to me for review. Still workin' on finishing my full swatches and perhaps compare the Zoyas with Out of This World. Whew!

More Aromaleigh Swatches

I think these are the last swatches I'll be able to do before Aromaleigh closes for good (which is in about two days), so if you're thinking of ordering I hope these will help!

So sad.

Anyway. Here's Bette Noire (Bête Noire). Cool name. Even better shades.

Sabine, Solange, Viviane, Jolie, Lisette.


Colette, Mirielle, Bette, Chantal, Ambre, Aurelie, Darcelle, Amarante.

And some random Elemental Lustres and a random Gothic Lolita:


Flash, Blast, Psyche, Teddy Wisp.

Don't forget to click the images to enlarge and view more detail. Lots of cool blue, purple, copper, gold and pink sparkles in these.

I'm also currently working on these:

So stay tuned for that :D

Flattering Eye of the day

I wonder if I should find something else to call these besides "eye of the day" because I rarely post them on the same day I wear them. Maybe... eye of two weeks ago? Doesn't have much of a ring to it. Maybe it's just a look. An eye look. I dunno.

Still feeling under the weather and have no energy to swatch new stuff or edit photos. I would love to post the Orly Cosmic FX polishes but I'm just too exhausted!

So, here's an eye look I did a few weeks ago that I thought really made my eye color look nice.




See?? Doesn't it make my eyes look really brown? I think they look fabulous.

This was (to the best of my memory...)
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Fyrinnae Leopard Print Galaxy applied wet on lid
The dark half of the L'oreal HIP Gilded Duo in crease
I don't remember what was on the lower lashline
Fyrinnae Nijiro highlight
Urban Decay Liquid Liner in Oil Slick
Urban Decay Zero 24/7
Cover Girl Lash Blast

I love green eyeshadow on my eyes because it seems to bring out the color and make it look rich and golden instead of just black like they normally look. However, green doesn't always mesh well with my skin tone, it seems to bring out redness or weird yellow/orange tones. Same thing happens with green polish, too. However, I love green so it rarely keeps me from wearing it. This combination wasn't bad on my skin. Pretty close to perfect.

Leopard-Print Galaxy is spectacular. It shifts colors at different angles and it has lots of little iridescent sparkles. I'm addicted to these Fyrinnae Arcane Magic shades, they're so fun and interesting! Despite the complexity and sparkle of Leopard Print Galaxy, this was still a fairly subtle look.

Aromaleigh Swatches

These are all of the Aromaleigh shades I currently have. I ordered some last week when they re-opened, but they haven't arrived yet! If they arrive before they close for good, I'll try to get at least jar pictures posted.

I'm pretty sure the whole Sonic Eyes line is long gone, so I supposed I'm swatching them for posterity. They were really great. I regret not buying the entire line. Though, in my defense, when they went on clearance, Aromaleigh said that they were clearing them out so they could re-formulate them to be better. I know. Ugh. I'm still pretty upset about that. I held out for the better versions. *sigh*

Please click each photo to enlarge it. I leave them huge so you can see all the detail and different colors of shimmer and glitter and all that good stuff. Oh, and arm hair. You can see my arm hair. Isn't that awesome?


Without flash and with. Left to right: Oberon, Brownstone, Allspice, Concrete Jungle (blue sparkles!), Twinkling Lights.

Left to right: Re-Gifted, Party Dress, Swelter, Spiked Punch, Flirt A Little, Mulberry, Almost Midnight.

Left to right: Rocks! Glam Glitter in Masquerade, Girl's Night Out, Amethyst, Mirielle, Colette, Shadow Witch.

Left to right: Chocolate Heart, Lovelorn, Ambre, Rocks! Glam Glitter in Spooky, Trilium, Coney Island, Cosmos.

Left to right: Sylph, Snow, Moth, Latte, Fervor, Nasturtium.

And the Rocks! Sonic eyes:



Left to right: Bad Reputation, Ring of Fire, Tainted Love (best red ever), Pretty in Pink, Coralfang, Death Valley, Greenhell, Lazy Sod.


Left to right: Vampira, Vive Le Rock, Raspberry Beret (I hate this song SO MUCH), Lady Stardust, Hit or Miss, Lookin For A Kiss.

Left to right: Black Sunshine, Back in Black, Space Oddity, Body Electric.

I suppose that's it... *sniffle*

Two Aromaleigh Looks

Like I mentioned in the last makeup post, Aromaleigh is closing this week... Sadly, I just discovered them about a month ago... maybe two months? I had been intentionally avoiding them for a while (along with most indie makeup companies) and finally gave in to ordering when the Sonic Eyes line went on clearance. Now I'm kicking myself for not trying them sooner, cause now I've missed out on a lot of amazing colors. I'm actually kinda sad... Their stuff seems head and shoulders above all the indie/mineral/loose makeup brands I've tried.

I'm still editing the swatches I did of all the Aromaleigh colors I currently have, but here's two looks I did using their colors:


This was:
MAC Paint Pot in Painterly
Aromaleigh Re-Gifted applied wet on lid
Urban Decay Zero in the crease
Aromaleigh Ambre over Zero in the crease and on lower lashline
Fyrinnae Finnegan's Wake highlight
Kat Von D liquid liner in Black Metal Love
Urban Decay Zero 24/7
Cover Girl Lash Blast

Who knew that gold+black=green? I knew I wanted a monochrome look and I thought that adding black and then purring a gold on top would make a blackened gold, but nope, it made... green? Oh well. I love green at least. Re-Gifted is an amazing shade, it's rich and SHINY and metallic. I mean, it's really, really shiny. It has a nice chrome-like quality that stays all day. And, as an added perk, it sparkles too! I need sparkles. I'm addicted to sparkle.



I tried to get some blurriness to pick up the glitter... sorta works... can you see the silver and gold and red glitter?

This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Aromaleigh Spiked Punch applied wet on lid
Make Up For Ever 92 in crease
Aromaleigh Almost Midnight over 92 and on lower lashline
Fyrinnae Finnegan's Wake highlight
Kat Von D liquid liner in Black Metal Love
Urban Decay Zero 24/7
Cover Girl Lash Blast

This was yesterday's look - 08/09/10- so I had to do something special! I think this turned out great. The pictures show some really patchy unblended looking spots but they weren't as obvious in real life. I've learned that with loose and mineral shadows, if I want to use them in the crease and still keep them true to color I need to apply them over another traditional/commercial eyeshadow or I need to use them wet, but wet in the crease is usually a big pain in the ass so I try to layer mostly. Almost Midnight is a gorgeous vibrant blue purple and I might be able to use it alone, but it does seem really patchy. It kept trying to wipe off the MUFE 92 when I was patting it on top. I've encountered that a lot with these types of shadows, the base and shimmer don't stay together.

Spiked Punch is really awesome though, I have no problems with that color. Nice coral-pink-red with a crapload of iridescent sparkle. Goes well with purple. Two thumbs up.

Any recommendations on brands with quality and color selection comparable to Aromaleigh? Preferably professional, reliable, non-drama companies, please!

Konad WIN :)

After I peeled off that last Konad fail-icure (bad habit, I know!), I decided to give the Konad another try and actually came up with something GOOD! Not necessarily creative or unique, but it's not ugly! Yay!

Of course, I used my old reliable combination of black base + holo design. Can't really fail with that.


I intentionally blurred the last to to get some of the holo effect to show up. You might need to enlarge it. The stars are holo and they look really 3-D against the black background! Pretty sweet. I'm actually still wearing this. I like.

Which reminds me, I don't think I ever posted the Casey/Gold mani I did a while back. I know I mentioned it on Twitter... I get distracted so easily. I have thousands of pictures I never remember to post... The minute something new and shiny crosses my path I forget about everything!

The base is Zoya Casey, which is arguably one of the most sexy yet classy and posh vamp shades in existence. But, it is a creme, and after wearing it for a day I needed to embellish it a little. The color for the design is Milani Melt In The Sun, also an amazing color, very glass-fleck sparkly sorta like Nubar Venetian Glass but sparklier. Yet another thing I have forgotten to post. I used a Bundle Monster plate for this, so it's technically not Konad, but it's still nail art stamping.

My pictures didn't pick up the design very well, but it reminded me of a rich brocade tapestry type of thing. Something you'd see in a museum or a castle. The glass fleck finish of Melt In The Sun makes the edges of the design soft and irregular so it really looks woven or embroidered!

And one more Konad from last year... Pretty damn cheesy but I must admit I liked how it turned out!

I remember that I did this one the day Liebe Ist Für Alle Da was released. The base is Sally Hansen Red Carpet, a Ruby Pumps clone but still incredibly hot, the fishnet is Konad Black and the stars are China Glaze OMG. Konad over glitter is one of my most favorite things ever. The way the glitter flickers through the lines... ah, so gorgeous.

On another topic, someone just asked me why I stopped posting nail polish... I haven't! I'm just not super excited about anything nail polish at the moment (at least until Zoya and China Glaze winter/holiday come out!) and I'm really having fun posting more makeup things. I'm not just a polish addict, I'm a super beauty product junkie! It's been really refreshing for me to switch up my posts and I'll keep doing it until it's not fun anymore :) So don't worry, I haven't abandoned polish. I know I have a million things I haven't posted... I feel it looming over me all the time... all these polishes and swatches and pictures... like I'll never catch up on things I want to post or photograph... But I'm trying!