Inexpensive Haul! L.A. Colors and E.L.F.

Today I made first time purchases from two brands! I actually found them at Urban Planet, not somewhere you'd normally shop for makeup! I noticed the L.A. Colors 5 pan eyeshadows sitting in a bin, and there were testers so I swatched a couple and was surprised how smooth and pigmented they were! I picked out two palettes to grab, since I had a shirt and the promo in store was buy 2 items get 1 free... so I got both eyeshadow palettes for only $4! Then I noticed these ELF lip glosses which were only $2.50 each, so I took advantage of the buy 2 get 1 free on that and got three of them for $5! Wooop all that makeup for about $10 - STEAL! Here's a pic of the collective haul.



Here's pics and swatches of the lip glosses. I'm really impressed with these - nice colours and texture and they seem to really last a while. They are called the ELF Super Glossy Lip Shine.



From left to right the shades are called Pink Kiss, Tropical Breeze, and Honey Do.



Same shade order as above, swatched l-r.

And the shadows!



First palette is called Lollipop. All gorgeous purple/pink shades. Most of them are more pinky-purple but the one second from the right is a really gorgeous blue-purple that I LOVE - I've been looking for a shade like this!





The second palette is called Unforgettable. Lots of lovely neutrals here  - I can see myself using this a lot!





These were all swatched over UDPP, and like I said I was VERY pleasantly surprised by the pigmentation and smoothness of these shadows. These are all just one or two swipes of the finger, from pan to skin. No repeatedly going back or anything, and no fussing around to get them to look smooth and pretty. Very easy to work with. I wish I had bought more of them!

I'll probably do a look with one of these palettes soon! Maybe both! ;) Enjoy!

FOTD May 30/11

Went for a silvery kind of look today, using the Sephora 5-in-1 palette. I like these shades because they are silvery but have a slight taupe/brownish edge to them that makes them a little more day wearable and unique, I think.





Colours used (all from Sephora 5-in-1 palette):

-33 on the lid and under the lower lashline

-38 on outer half of lid and outer half of lower lashline

-a bit of 3 blended into the outer corner for more depth

-4 blended just above the crease

-5 on the inner corner and veeery lightly on the browbone, mixed with a bit of 10 there

FOTD May 28/11

A day late, but better late than never! Did a bronze and gold look yesterday! Love how it turned out. :)

As usual my hair is all over the freaking place, pardon all the random flyaways. I think it's time I started using a finishing cream. :|







Silly face in the last one! Not quite duckface... but perhaps a cousin of it.

Eyeshadow colours were all from the UD Naked Palette.... I did Smog on the lids, with Half Baked on the inner corner of the lid - but not the inner-inner corner, as in the tear duct... just on the very inner part of the upper lid, and blended above the crease. Then I added a little Darkhorse at the outer corner for depth. Also applied Smog under the lower lashline with a liner brush. Used Sin for inner corner and browbone highlight. Also should mention I used the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Pure Gold as a base!

Blush was NYX Rouge Cream Blush in Glow. :)

Teal Smokey Eyes, and a small clothing haul :)

The other day I wanted to play around with a colourful smokey eye look... not for any occasion, just for fun! I went with teal since I really wanted to try out a colour in my Sephora 5-in-1 palette, a gorgeous deep teal.









I did a little bit of layering here... I probably didn't really need to, but I did anyways... do you ever do that? Layer two virtually identical colours on top of each other, just because? Weird... anyways here are the colours used!

-Sephora 5-in-1 Colorplay Limited Fashion Edition Palette, shades 41 and 46

-NYX Ultra Pearl Mania in Turquoise Pearl

-MAC Deep Blue Green pigment

And of course black liner, and mascara, same old same old there. ;)

Aaand I think "haul" may have been a bit misleading regarding the clothing... to be fair it was from a decent little haul I did a couple months ago, but I only ever took a picture of the one shirt! Well technically it's layered and both shirts are from the haul, so two shirts. ;) The white tank is from Bootlegger and the pink lace one is from Stitches. :)

Review: LA Girl Color Addict Nail Polish

Recently, the shoe store I work at got a display of LA Girl nail polishes. Weird I know, but I guess nail polish relates to toenail polish which relates to feet and therefore shoes... soo yes. Anyways when I first heard it was coming I wasn't too excited, I figured they'd be very cheapy crap quality stuff. But when it arrived, I couldn't help myself, especially when I saw the price!!$4.99 each or two for $7.99... plus I get my 30% staff discount! So I picked out four shades, and got them all for about $12.50 including tax!! STEAL!

All the colours in the Color Addict line (or at least all the ones we got) have a bit of fine gold microshimmer in them. It shows up more in certain shades than others.

Here are the shades I got:





This colour is called "Sensation". It's a very beautiful bright fuchsia pink. A real true Barbie pink, and although I would never have guessed it, probably my favourite colour of the four. That's the one thing that threw me for a loop with these four... I didn't like them in the "order" I thought I would! I think the gold shimmer also shows up best in this one.





This shade is called "Escape". It's a gorgeous peachy-pinky-coral shade, and the gold shimmer pairs really well with this one too. I thought this would be my favourite, and it probably is second favourite behind Sensation, but I have a feeling this one would look even better if I were more tanned! It's on my toes right now, but I'm sparing you pictures of the state they're in. ;)





This one's called "Habit". Purple is notorious for not photographing properly, and this one's no exception. It isn't NEARLY as blue as it looks here, in fact it's a much more "warm" red-toned purple in real life. It's a nice colour but it's probably my least favourite of the four, only because cool toned colours look better on me usually... if it actually were the colour it looks like in the photo, I'd probably be all about it!





This one is called "Disorder". It's a deep grey with the gold shimmer visible only from certain angles. This one is kind of neutral for me, as far as how I feel about it. Don't love it, don't hate it!! Update: After having this one for a while, I actually really do like it a lot!

The formula on all these is pretty good, especially for the price! One coat is very thin, and it's pretty watery. But 2-3 coats is perfect. A con is that it doesn't dry very well. Even a couple hours after I put it on, when it feels dry to the touch, it can still get nicked or creased by my sheets if I go to bed. Since I often do my nails in the evening, what I like to do with this stuff is put it on a few hours before bed, and then do topcoat the next day after it's inevitably creased on my sheets, to cover that up.

BUT... once it's dry, the lasting power of this is great!! I get VERY minimal chipping and tipwear! Honestly I would compare this favourably overall to nail polishes twice the price or more. I'll definitely be buying more shades.

Swatches hopefully to come soon! You can kind of see Sensation on my nails in the pics, I didn't post a straight on shot of them though because like my toes, my hands/nails need a little love right now before they're camera ready!

LA Girl Nail Polish is available at cherryculture.com as well.

I was not paid or given any product to review for this (obvs!), it was my purchase and my opinion.

FOTD May 5/11

This was actually a FOTD from a little while ago, I forgot it was on my camera. But I'm pretty sure I remember the products I used, and it made me remember I really liked this look and I want to do it again, probably tomorrow!! So consider this also a FOTD for the future, tomorrow! LOL But I'm skipping the rundown of skin products since it's just the usual!





Eyes

-NYX Ultra Pearl Mania in Nude Pearl on inner corners and inner lids

-Urban Decay Naked Palette: Half Baked under lashline, Smog under lashline on the outer corners and in the crease, Darkhorse in the crease too to darken it up a bit more

-UD Zero 24/7 Eyeliner

-CoverGirl LashBlast Waterproof mascara

I also think I was wearing NYX Round Girls lip gloss in Whipped!