Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Pallet Review

Urban Decay came out with this pallet awhile ago, and I've had it since they first hit stores. Unfortunately I haven't been able to really do a review on it until now.

For Urban Decay's 15th Anniversary they came out with their anniversary pallet. I haven't bought anything from Urban Decay in a long time, aside from some Primer Potion because they have a tendency to use duplicate colors in their pallets. There were several pallets I wanted, but because they used repeat colors, I opted out of buying them. This pallet has 15 brand new colors and one color in particular that shares my namesake. Knowing that made me want to snag the pallet just for that one color. LOL.

They ended up selling out on their website almost immediately, but I read on Temptalia's website that they were selling it on ULTA.com so I made my way over there and bought one for myself before it could go out of stock. I waited about a week to get it and when I did... It was like Christmas!

The pallet comes encased in a purple velvet box whereas the actual pallet itself is plastic with a metallic finish. I really like the jewel embellishments on the face of the pallet. The material used for the cover picks up fingerprints like crazy though, so my OCD kicks in and I'm constantly wiping it to remove smudgy fingerprints. LOL.

When you open the pallet, the colors are displayed in all their glory and looking at them seriously made me want to squeal with happiness... actually, I think I DID squeal.

I swatched some of their colors on my skin over Urban Decay Primer Potion and *OMG* they are SUPER pigmented! The several looks I have done with this pallet, every time I dipped my brush in and applied the shadow on my eye, I was always surprised with how much pigment was deposited on my eyelids.

The colors swatched (clockwise) are:

~ Midnight 15

~ Junkshow

~ Deep End

~ Half Truth

~ Black Out

~ Omen

~ Chase (yay for my namesake!!!)

The pallet retails for $55 dollars and because times have gotten a little rough, it wasn't a buy that I would normally make. But considering there were 15 brand new shadows, with the addition of tax, I was only paying about $4 per shadow. I felt like this was a good deal since Urban Decay shadows usually retail for almost $17 separately.

This is a really great product and ILOVEIT so much! I've always been a fan of Urban Decay and so for them to come out with something new was nothing short of exciting to me. LOL

Hope you enjoyed this review.

*pictures are mine. please do not steal*

Profusion Beauty Gift Set Review

So this is my review on the Profusion Beauty Gift Set I got from Walgreens a couple days ago. Due to the holiday season, there are a lot of deals going on so I bought this set for $14.99. It came with:

~6 nail polishes

~5 lipsticks

~4 eyeshadow pallets

~4 color corrector/concealers

~4 lip sugars

~2 lip glosses

~2 lip liners

~2 eye liners

~2 blushes

~2 face powders

~a variety of sponge applicators and brush applicators

Not a bad haul for $14.99. This is going to be a pretty long review, so I've only taken pictures and swatched items I'm more likely to use.

So here we go....

The Eyeshadow Pallets

So there were four that came in this gift set. Since the pallets had varying colors but specific themes in them, I'm going to refer to them as my "Spring", "Summer", "Fall" and "Winter" pallets to better differentiate between them.

I swatched two colors from each pallet on my hand over Urban Decay Primer Potion in the order: Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. I also did a look using the Winter pallet and I will include a link down below to take you to my LOTD.

The shadows gave pretty decent pay off but were a little hard to blend. I also had to pack on a lot of the shadow to get the opacity I wanted, but considering the look I was doing, I probably would have to do that with other shadows as well, so I can't complain.

The Lipsticks

The lipsticks that came with the set were all right. Nothing I'd be overly thrilled to get. The reddest lipstick gave the best color payoff but it wasn't as pigmented as some lipsticks I've used in the past (MAC, L'Oreal, Wet n Wild, just to name a few). I had to really rub it on to my skin just to get them to show up on my skin. The lighter pinks and peach colored lipsticks had a little too much shimmer for my taste and I don't think they were the right tone to compliment my skin.

The Lip Glosses

I actually really liked the lip glosses. The red lip gloss reminded me of the holly berries that people decorate their homes with and showed up very nicely, even on my darker toned skin. And the peach colored lip gloss had little bits of gold shimmer in it (at least that's what I saw, lol) which I really liked. I could see myself using these lip glosses over lipsticks.

The Lip Sugars

These were way too sticky for me and the colors screamed "pre-teen" to me. Plus there was too much "buble gum" shimmer in them. I might give them to my daughter or include them in a giveaway I'm thinking of having.

The Lip/Eye Liners

Their your pretty standard lip and eye liners. They give decent pay off. I like the red lip liner though. I could see myself using it to do a red lip sometime in the future.

The Color Correcter/Concealers

They blended right into the skin which I suppose is a good think, but they almost completely disappeared which leads me to believe that I would have to use a lot of product to make a difference in correcting and concealing skin blemishes and there really isn't that much product in a pot. I might throw these into my PROkit just for back up purposes.

As for the nail polishes, blushes, and face powders, I don't think I'll ever really use them, but I wouldn't mind giving them to my daughter to play around with.

All in all, I really liked the eye shadow pallets and lip glosses. I don't think I lost out on anything knowing what many eye shadow pallets and lip glosses run for these days.

This gift set is cool for what it is and is a great starter kit for someone getting started in makeup and wanting to experiment with using different colors.

I hope you liked this review!


link to LOTD using Winter pallet: http://chaselovemakeupartistry.blogspot.com/2011/11/lotd-winter-snow-princess.html

Sugarpill Cosmetics Swatch/Review

I first heard of Sugarpill on YouTube while watching one of my favorite Makeup Gurus, Petrilude. He was reviewing a local (I live in California) cosmetics line called Sugarpill created by none other than Shrinkle herself (if you don't know who that is, check her out on eBay. She sells her clothing line as well as other cosmetics.) From the moment I saw Petrilude's swatches and the pretty boxes and packaging it came in, I knew I had to have this cosmetics line.

Now, I know there are tons of reviews out there singing it's praise as well as many beautiful swatch reviews... and this swatch/review will be no different.

So without further ado, here is my Swatch Review on Sugarpill Cosmetics.

The website from which you can order is www.Sugarpill.net. It's a melange of pink and black print with flashing images of pretty models wearing the pretty makeup. There are tabs near the top that help you navigate your way around the site. Of course upon the site loading, the first tab I click is "Shop". It brings me to a page where potted shadows and pigments are on display, bedazzling my senses with what I call Sparkle Overload.

Her line carries 9 pressed shadows, two eye shadow palettes that carry four eye shadows at a time, and 18 loose shadows. She also sells lashes and other fun stuff like stickers that you can put on your cosmetic boxes. Each shadow is sold for $12.oo each and each eye shadow palette is sold for $34 (which, as I said before, come with four shadows in them. If you got both palettes, you would get 8 out of the 9 pressed shadows and would essentially be buying 3 shadows and getting one free. I'll go over the palettes when I swatch). When you click on each shadow to view it, you can also see the information of ingredients and whether or not it is vegan.

So after staring at the website for several hours (yes, literally, hours) I finally chose several pieces to buy. I ended up buying both of the eye shadow palettes and four loose eye shadows. Shipping took the standard 3-7 days and I waited impatiently every single one of those days, LOL. When it finally did arrive, it came in a non-descript white box that had what is becoming Shrinkle's signature pretty kitty stamped on the outside. When I tore it open, it was wrapped in hot pink tissue paper and came with a hand-written note from Shrinkle herself, thanking you for your purchase. Awesome customer service if you ask me. It also came with a sample of one of her loose shadows, a Sugarpill logo sticker and two business cards with bomb looking models wearing the makeup. I haven't even bothered to throw them away. I keep them in my makeup train case, haha!

Now comes the fun part! PICTURES!!! These are the pieces I bought.

Pretty, huh? It's enough to make you want to keep the boxes. So of course, I immediately opened up each box to see the treasure inside and of course, did swatches. First up are the palettes.

(back of the box the palette came in)

(cover of each eye shadow palette with the outside box removed)

So as I said before, she sells two palettes that carry fours shadows each. They are called the "Sweetheart Palette" and the "Burning Heart Palette".

The boxes are made of heavy cardboard which seem durable (although I don't plan on tossing it around any time soon) and also have a full sized mirror inside.

The "Burning Hearts Palette" contains the four pressed shadows called Flamepoint, Buttercup, Love+ and Poison Plum.

The "Sweetheart Palette" contains another four pressed shadows and they are called Dollipop, Afterparty, Midori and Tako.

The only shadow not featured in these palettes is the pressed shadow Bulletproof, which is a matte black shadow. I didn't get that one as I already have several matte black shadows in my makeup kit.

I swatched them on my arm over Urban Decay Primer Potion, no base.

Flamepoint, Buttercake, Love+, Poison Plum

Dollipop, Afterparty, Midori, Tako

The colors went on very smoothly and I love the color pay off Love+, Poison Plum, Dollipop and Tako. Buttercup's color pay off impressed me as yellow tones that contain no shimmer don't really show up very well on my skin without a white base underneath. Flamepoint was also impressive but being a warmer tone, it is still something I would use with a white base in order to get a more truer shade without my skin tone contributing anymore warmth to it. Afterparty and Midori are beautiful colors as well and I love the coolness of each color, especially Afterparty. I do feel that I had to rub on a little more of Midori for it to show up on my skin, so again, it's another shadow I would use with a white base if I wanted to get a truer shade out of it.

The two that stood out to me most of the 8 shadows would Dollipop and Afterparty. I could definitely see an eye shadow combo using these colors.

Next are the loose shadows. Each loose shadow jar contains a net weight of 5 grams and for only $12.00 that's a huge amount of pretty sparklies that will get any Makeup Junkie addicted quick. The lids of the jars are twist on tops with the label printed on.

The loose shadows I picked out were:

Stella, Goldilux, Absinthe and Asylum

The jars come packed with loads of product and sparkles. I found myself "ooh"ing and "ah"ing over each jar that I opened. Shrinkle was surely not stingy with distributing her product.

First up, Stella:

Stella is a beautiful black based pigment with tons of sparkle that are almost chameleon like as they change in colors from blues and purples to greens and pinks. In the jar it is very pretty to look at, but this shadow is one that I would suggest be used wet. When applied dry, the shadow needs to be packed on which results in a lot of fall out. Also, when I attempted to brush it on, it only seemed to smudge the black base of the shadow and sweep off the sparkle. Something that I did find that helps with keeping the glitter on is using a duo-fiber crease brush.

Next, Goldilux:

There is so much to be said about this shadow. It is beautiful applied wet or dry. When applied dry, it creates a beautiful shine on the lid that is visible in any light. And when it's applied wet... all I can say is OMG!!!. It creates a dramatic, metallic sheen on the lids that is sure to catch anyone's attention. It stays its true color in either form and is almost too decadent to wear. Almost being the operative word....

Now for Absinthe:

The name itself made want to have this shadow. It is a beautiful metallic lime green shadow with a multifacetous glitter that changes in the light. The glitter color ranges from golden sparkle to pink and then green. This shadow can be used wet or dry but I prefer to use it wet so that it shows true on the skin.

Lastly, is Asylum:

This shadow is one that I actually had to wait to order because it was sold out. As soon as it came back into stock, I made sure to order it right away. When I first opened the jar, I thought that it looked a little darker, maybe more smokey, than the swatch that was shown on the website. This was definitely one that had to be swatched in order to see what color it would show on the skin. It is a pretty red brick color with lots of redglitter and one I cannot wait to use. I can already tell that this is something that I would use a lot during Halloween time.

These are the swatches on the skin.

(Dry/Wet over Urban Decay Primer Potion)

I see lots of sparklies in my future... ;-)

I know this has been a lengthy review, but I wanted to express my thoughts on a great line and let all of you know that it is truly worth the buy and wait. Thanks for sticking through the whole review and I hope that you enjoyed it.

Oh, and thanks, Shrinkle, for creating such a wonderful cosmetic line!

MAC Semi Precious Eye Shadow Review/Swatches

So MAC has a new line of mineral shadows out and for those of you who are MACjunkies like I, you know what I am talking about. They have come out with a line called "Semi Precious" and there are 12 shadows, 5 lipglosses, 4 skin finishes, 4 lipsticks, 3 blushes, 2 dual faced eyeshadow brushes, 1 face dual faced foundation brush, 1 dual faced kabuki brush and 1 mascara...


Whew, that's an extensive line! As much as I would have liked to own the entire collection, I focused on snagging three eyeshadows for myself. As beautiful as everything else was, I am pretty constant in the formula of foundation/primers/concealers/setting powders that I use. But being that I am a total eyeshadow junkie, I made sure to make my way to MAC and grab up the three I had been eyeing.


The line was released to the public in the States this past Thursday (7/5/11). I had actually gone to the MAC store on the Tuesday before release because I received an email from the MACpro site and the lovely ladies in the store (who now know me by face and name... o_O) were kind enough to let me go to the back room where they had the display set up so that I could peruse them and swatch them for myself.

The three that caught my eye were "Blue Sheen", "Unsurpassable", and "Hint of Sapphire"

Now, I've read and watched different reviews on the eyeshadows and many of them did not receive great marks. Maybe 4 out of the 12 were said to be considered worth buying. Though I totally respect the opinion of many of the Makeup Gurus on YouTube and Beauty Bloggers, I decided that this was something that I would have to decide for myself. I defintely take what others have said into consideration, but after swatching the shadows myself and liking what I saw, I decided to buy them when they were released. And also, because some of my friends wanted to see these shadows swatched as well, I decided to write out this review.

So these swatches were done wet and dry over Urban Decay's Primer Potion. Also please keep in mind that I am a darker skinned girl, so hopefully this will help all you girls (and boys) with a more golden-brown skin tone decide whether you'd like to invest in these shadows.

(from left to right: Hint of Sapphire, Blue Sheen and Unsurpassable)

First up, Unsurpassable. In it's pan, it's mix of greens, blues, pinks and sparkles galore. When it is swatched on the skin it totally changes the shade that would be expected if it were to be taken at face value. I personally like the sheer and sparkly effect that it gives on the skin. It gives that perfect wash of color that I would associate with a fairy or princess. (I know, I'm a romantic. lol.)

Dry, you can see more of the mixture of green and blues, giving it almost a jade-like appearance with small flecks of pink.

Wet, the pink seems to make more of an appearance almost canceling out the green. It becomes an indescribable neutral-like color but the sparkle is still there.

I personally like the shadow when it's applied dry.

Then there is Blue Sheen. It is a deep, royal blue with flecks of pink in it that I feel are very nice in contrast to each other. However, wet or dry, the color pay off looks the same to me. The wet swatch is only a tiny bit more intense than the dry swatch but I do think one way or the other, it would be beautiful to wear in either form.

Now for Hint of Sapphire. When swatched dry, it's another shadow that seems packed full of greens and blues and pinks, although in the pan it is more blue than green as opposed to Unsurpassable. It also shows up somewhat sheer but again, I like that and it's something I was looking for anyway. It swatches more blue on the skin with little hints of green and pink sparkles.

When swatched wet, the blue seems to come out more, over powering the green in it almost.

I think this is one shadow I would also prefer to wear dry.

Some things that I like about these shadows is that they're definitely attractive to look at in the pan and on the skin. I feel that these are something worth investing in. They are also multi-faceted. They change in appearance slightly. Unsurpassable and Hint of Sapphire show up one color on the skin until you view them from a different angle, as well as whether they are seen in artificial or natural light. Blue Sheen seems pretty constant although when applied wet, the deep blue over powers a lot of the pink sparkle that is embedded in it.

As for the other shadows, while they were definitely nice to look at, I am a picky buyer. Something has to really catch my eye for me to really want it (and that is after talking to the MACgirls, reading and listening to reviews and doing my own personal swatches.)

They can be bought for $20.00 at any store that sells MAC. I hope that this eyeshadow swatch review was helpful to you all!

Thanks for reading!!!