BITE Beauty Fail

   BITE Beauty makes wicked lip products, especially their lipsticks. They are opaque, not drying, and come in the greatest colors! However, I gots a biff with them. And a big one. I was swatching two of my BITE lipsticks for other blog posts, and them this happened:

 

They freaking broke. The smallest amount of pressure, and they both just slid apart. I get it, these things happen, but both of these were virtually brand new, or brand new, and weren't left in the sun or somewhere warm. This is not something that has happened with either my drugstore or high end lipsticks. The top color, Cava, cost $24 plus tax, and the bottom color, Palomino, was one of the lipstick duos that cost $12 plus tax. For that much money I expect them to not break at the slightest pressure. Not a complete loss though, I'll re-pot them into some of the leftover Sephora sample jars that I have.

  

NARS Eyeshadow Duo Haul

 Recently I went to Denver, and whilst there I did what anyone else would do: went to the mall and bought some new eyeshadow. I love NARS, I am a huge fan of the blushes, lip glosses, foundations, tinted moisturizer, matte lip crayons, everything. But I've never tried any of their eyeshadows. I've heard good things about them, and apparently the duos have come out with some newer colors in a new formula that is just divine. I picked up the duo in Kalahari and Bellissima. They are priced at $35.00 a piece. 

I don't need any more neutral toned eyeshadows, per say, but when I swatched these, I fell in love. The packaging is classic NARS, black rubber that is bound to get dirty within minutes of being opened, but sleek and very expensive looking. It has its upsides and downsides, but I love it. It travels well, I have taken NARS blushes and blush palettes on planes, cars, buses and I have never had any shattered products. Which I can't say for all brands at this price point. 

Kalahari has two brown-toned frosty colors, one with a bronzy-gold undertone, and the other with a taupe undertone. These colors can be used together or separately, which is great to me because I love a shadow that can really stand on its own for a simpler, day appropriate look. If you are a fan of Urban Decay shadows, be aware; these are very different. They aren't as buttery and easily pigmented. They can be just as pigmented as an UD shadow, but there is more building up product involved, but not too much, I for one like this, just because of the versatility. 

 Bellissima has a basic cool-toned matte taupe-y brown and cream with a noticeable shimmer running through it. The brown is great to run along the lash line as a smokey liner or a nice more subtle alternative to a black liner, or you can use it as a shadow. It is amazingly versatile and I have found very few shadows in my collection that it doesn't pair well with. I wish I could speak as highly of it's counterpart. The cream shadow isn't bad, it is chalky or crumbly, but very hard to get pigmentation out of. I only use it to add shimmer to colors that don't have any or that I want more out of. It has virtually no use independently. I can't get enough color out of it to use as a highlighter, or an all over color. I do, and will continue, to use it, but in comparison to the other shadows, I was disappointed.

  

 I will defiantly be checking out more of NARS' shadows in the future, great products if you have the money. These are $35.00 for 0.14oz of product. For me, it's worth it. For some people that is way too much for that amount of product, so that's just something to keep in mind when looking to buy these.

Rating:

  Kalahari: 9/10

  Bellissima: 6/10

My Essie Summer Polish Picks

   Essie is my nail polish crack. I love everything about them, the color selection, the formula, the packaging that makes them oh-so-easy to store, and when they're all lined up in the nail polish drawer, they nest so prettily together and I just can't explain how much I love them! As it is summer I thought I'd dig around in my collection and share some of my favorite picks for summer! I'm not the best at describing colors, so I'm just using the color descriptions from the Essie website.

1. First Timer "adorable newbie green" This is my must-have toe color!
2. Fiji "and opaque creamy pale pink" This polish has a cult following, and for a good reason, don't be deceived by how boring it looks in the bottle, it is one of the prettiest colors I own.
3. Find Me An Oasis "refreshing ice blue" A nice alternative to white.
4. Tart Deco "a dreamy coral with an artistic burst of color" Great with a matte or regular top coat.
5. Under Where? "wildly flirtatious orchid" My favorite light purple polish.
6. Mint Candy Apple "a creme de menthe mint" When I first went to get this color I had to go to two CVSs, two Walgreens, and a Walmart before finally finding it at a Target. One of the only colors that I have ever gone through more than one bottle of.
7. Ole Caliente "a red-orange with pink undertone" Currently on my toes, and one of my very first Essie colors.
8. Butler Please "an indulgent bright blue" My favorite true blue, I've never come across another color quite like it.

   If none of these tickle your fancy, so to speak, I compiled a list of ten other great Essie colors for summer, I just don't own them (yet). I have owned or used all of them at one time or another, so I can attest to the fact that they are great colors.

1. Geranium "an award-winning dynamic red-orange burst"
2. Tangerine "a juicy orange-red cream"
3. Clambake "a creamy red-orange"
4. Vices Versa "juicy neon lime"
5. Bouncer, It's Me! "intensely vivd blue"
6. In the Cab-Ana "self assured aqua azure"
7. Bikini So Teeny "a sparkling, cornflower blue"
8. Using My Maiden Name "pretty blue hydrangea"
9. Full Steam Ahead "pearlescent punch lilac"
10. The Girls Are Out "fuchsia peony sparkle"

Natural Everyday Makeup

  I am a makeup fiend. I admit, it's out there and I've said it. I wear smokey eyes to school, I wear purple lipstick to run errands, I just love playing with makeup and how it makes me feel. That being said, I also love how very natural, well-done understated makeup can look. When you really take the time to do natural makeup looks well, one of those very radiant, glow-from-within looks, it can really be show stopper. Most days I like to look made-up, it's obvious that I'm wearing makeup, and oh well, I don't care. But some days I like to look like I woke up, and ya I just look this glowy and awesome (we all know that very few people look like that just by waking up though).

  So this is my 'natural everyday makeup' look. Very simple, not too many products, but covers up any problem areas, discoloration, and adds a nice bronzed, sun-kissed affect that my pale pale face will never actually have. 

  This look is all about the skin, perfect, smooth, radiant skin. I'd also usually say dewy skin, but I used the Becca Ever-Matte Poreless Priming Perfector as my primer, because I had a sample and wanted to try it (I'm going to post a review on it soon). Plus, matte skin can look natural! But using a primer is probably one of the most important steps in this look, it will keep your makeup on all day long, and gives your product a base to adhere to. If you don't want to use a matte base, I'd suggest the Laura Mercier Foundation Primer, it has no color to it, but foundation sticks to it like no other. Because it is summer right now, I went for a lighter weight base than I'd usually use, but darker in color because I just got back from vacation, and may have gotten a sun burn (SPF 50 my butt). I used the Laura Mecier Tinted Moisturizer SPF 20 in Nude, it has amazing coverage and lasting power for a tinted moisturizer, and I have found best applied with fingers to get it to really melt into the skin. After that I concealed my under eyes with MAC Pro Longwear Concealer in NW15, and concealed any blemishes and lingering redness with MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NW15.
   With radiant looks, I usually lean towards using cream products, as they blend into the skin more seamlessly and in person can look much more natural. But I used powder products, mostly because I'm out of the cream products that I would want to use. For a light contour I used MAC Eyeshadow in Omega, for a bronzer Bobbi Brown Bronzing Powder in Medium 2. It looks really dark and red, but it's perfect for people with light skin. I find most bronzers look muddy and orange on me, but this looks like I actually spent time in the sun and I love it! For a blush I used a very light flush of MAC Blushbaby, keeping it more towards the edges of my face, rather than the apples of my checks to emphasize that contour. For a highlight, I would have most liked to use a liquid or cream product like the MAC Prep + Prime Highlighter or YSL Touche Eclat, but once again, I'm using a powder. I used the NARS by Guy Bourdin 'One Night Stand' Palette, in the palette there is a highlighter called 'Devotee' that I can not get enough of. For the eyes I kept it very simple, just curled them and used a light hand of Eyeko's Eye Do Mascara. On the lips just some of the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment.
   I think that this will probably be my staple summer look, it's light and I just feel fresh wearing it!

Buxom Color Choreography Eyeshadow 5-Shadow Palette Review

   As this is a brand spankin new blog, none of you know me. So let me introduce myself; I'm Sarah (yep, just like the name of the blog. Funny how that works, huh?) and I am a makeup addict. It's a problem, so I figure that I should at least put my addiction to good use, and review the products that I get, and let people know what works for me and what doesn't. I've become a bit of a makeup aficionado, by no means a makeup artist, everything that I've learned is by trial and error, and maybe I can save some of you those errors.




 
Yesterday I went to Sephora, I had some money and it was burning a hole in my pocket, so I went and picked up some products that I'd had my eyes on for a while. As we all know, 90's fashion is back, in a big way. I, for one, am supportive, in a huge way. I love grungy, punk 90's rocker-chic fashion. It reminds me of my childhood, and in only the best of ways.

   


   The first thing that I picked up was one of the Buxom Color Choreography Eyeshadow 5-Shadow Palettes in Tango. The palette has five eyeshadows, three shimmers and two mattes. I had never tried any of the Buxom eyeshadows before, only the lip glosses, which are sticky but have the most amazing staying powder and color. Inside the box, along with the palette, is a pamphlet with two different ways to wear the eyeshadows, while I wouldn't use the eyeshadows the ways proposed, they could definitely be useful, especially for someone who is a beginner with eyeshadow.

  The palette comes in basic black packaging, very sturdy and closes with a magnetic lid. It is nice and compact, good for travel and can take some bumps and drops without fear of shattering the shadows inside. My only gripe is that they shiny plastic of the packaging picks up fingerprints like nobody's business. Not a huge issue for me, but if that is something that will really really bother you, this palette will seriously grind on your nerves. The bottom of the packaging is rather standard, with the names of the eyeshadows on a sticker.

 
    The palette came with a rather nice brush, seems like synthetic hairs. One side is an angled brush, and the other could be used as a basic deposit color brush, it is soft and wide enough that it could be used to blend as well though. The bristles are soft, impressively so,  it is one of the best brushes that I have received with a palette.

The eyeshadows themselves are neither the best, nor the worst that I have come in contact with. The middle highlight color 'Tandem' is chalky, has absolutely terrible fallout, it isn't very pigmented, and oddly enough sets into lines I didn't know that I had. With or without a primer, this color is completely irredeemable.

  The other four colors have an odd consistency, but are good. They all have nice pigmentation, but they have a very strange texture that if you don't build the color slowly, rather than a good amount (an amount that I would be able to deposit with most other eyeshadows of comparable price) they ball up. It's the strangest thing, the eyeshadows will roll up into little balls, like when you exfoliate your legs, the little balls of dead skin, it looks like that, but with eyeshadow. The three shimmer colors; 'Stride', 'Rhythm', and 'Embrace' when applied properly wear well for hours, I had them on for probably 6-7 hours (with primer) and they didn't budge, they were slightly more dull, but most eyeshadows will do that after almost 7 hours of wear. However, the matte green, 'Dip', the color I was probably the most excited about, was patchy and completely gone in some spots after only an hour and a half or so, and that was with a primer. 

  

Left to right: Rhythm, Embrace, Stride, Tandem, Dip

    Overall, this palette was disappointing. The shimmers are great colors, and I'll get a lot of use out of them, and I'll keep playing with the mattes to see if there is anything to be done with them. For $36 I expect a lot more, especially with only five eyeshadows. It's a palette that I will reach for on those '90s grungy days, but I'll need to use other eyeshadows as well, it's not the all-in-one palette that I was hoping for.

Rating: 5.5/10