Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette

 I recently picked up the UD Naked Basics palette because I was interested in some more matte shadows. I have to admit the majority of my collection consists of shimmery shades and not very many neutral mattes. My favorite browbone shadow shade is MAC's Brule but I ran out of it and have not repurchased. The shade W.O.S. from this palette is a dupe for this shade and since I wanted some other matte shades and another Brule like color, this purchase was a no brainer. I haven't gotten to play around too much with this but I have liked it from what I have. My only complaint would be that the first 3 shades are pretty light and pretty similar. Venus for example, is too light and shimmery and would look very stark against my skin if worn as an all over lid shade. I would have loved to have seen a warmer brown similar to MAC's Soft Brown and a darker brown that was lighter than Crave but darker than Faint. The colors are a little on the cool side in my opinion so a warmer brown would have been nice.  The compactness of the palette makes it perfect for traveling as it is only slightly larger than a pack of gum. My favorite way to use these colors is: W.O.S all over the lid, Naked 2 and Faint in the crease with some classic black liner. I also like to use that combination to use my brighter liners. It also makes a good companion to any other palettes you might have that don't have many neutral matte shades include, like the Wet N' Wild palettes.

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Hard Candy Green With Envy Palette

No Primer

No Primer

No Primer

Using Primer

W/Primer

I recently picked up this Hard Candy palette at Wal-Mart and I have to say I was very disappointing with the quality on these shadows. It was very hard to pick up any color to get a good swatch and without primer the color quality is very dull. The first two colors I couldn't get anything from and were extremely hard in texture. The palette was inexpensive at $6.00 which is nice if the quality was better but if your looking for a palette with greens and great pigmentation I would suggest picking up the Wet N Wild Comfort Zone palette which performs 1000x better than this.

NOTD: Layla Flash Black

My nail of the day today is one of my favorite colors that I own. It is Layla Flash Black Holographic polish. It is a black polish with a very strong holo. In these pictures I am wearing 3 thin coats of the polish

NOTD: Butter London Victoriana

Here I have my current notd Butter London's Victoriana. I am wearing 2 coats. please excuse my nasty looking cuticles

EOTD: Green and Brown

Flash

No Flash

Today I decided to use my new Maybelline Color Tattoo in Ready, Set, Green. In the product picture I showed the wrong matte brown that I used. In the group picture MAC Soft Brown is shown however I used MAC Wedge.

Products:
Primer(Not Shown):Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Browbone Highlight: Rock and Republic Veil
Lid: Maybelline Color Tattoo-Ready, Set, Green, Inglot Pearl 418
Crease: MAC Wedge
Outer Crease: MAC Mulch
Liner: MAC Blacktrack
Mascara: L'Oreal Faux Cils

Tools:
Forgot brow bone brush but used MAC 227
Lid: ELF brush for color tattoo, MAC 239 for green shadow
Crease: Rock and Republic crease brush, MAC 217
Liner: MAC 263
Brows: Target eyeliner brush

NOTD: China Glaze High Def

Another notd post today, this time wearing two coats China Glaze's High Def

NOTD: OPI DS Extravagance

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain

Smitten, Adore, Honey

Sunlight: Smitten, Adore, Hone

O/S Shade: Smitten, Adore, Honey

The Revlon balm stain are a more affordable version of the department store type balms/stains. The packaging on these is reminiscent of the Clinique chubby sticks. These have a twistable base which can push up more product or retract and no pencil sharpener is needed. They have a minty smell and taste that reminds me of Burt Bees lipbalm. I'm really enjoying the shade Honey as it is a very wearable my lips but better shade. These do last a very long time and leave behind a flattering stain. Upon application they are glossy and do stay that way for a couple of hours. I don't feel that these dry out my lips which is very good as some lip products tend to be very drying. You can also up the intensity of the colors by applying more layers which I like. Smitten is a pretty bright berry pink, Adore is a brownish red while Honey is a pretty neutral pink.

How I Store My Brushes

I personally like seeing how other people store their makeup, so I decided to share how I store my makeup brushes on my vanity. I hope to show more of my storage techniques in the future, but for now I'll start off by sharing my brush storage. I hadn't counted how many brushes I had before but today I did and I have 69 which was very shocking to me because I didn't think I had that many.
For storage I use a 3 compartment clear plastic pencil cup that I purchased at Staples for less than $10. I actually have another one which I use for eyeliners and cream shadow pencils.(I'll show that in another post)

I like to store face brushes in the back since they have longer handles and in the other two I store eye brushes. On one side I put my nicer brushes such as MAC and the other side my more inexpensive ones.

My nicer brushes

MAC Young Punk & Gilt by Association

Lately I haven't been keeping up with MAC collections so when I saw these these two colors at Nordstrom I was really surprised. For me Young Punk was "the one that got away". The collection these two originally came out in, Style Black, was in 2009 when I was barely getting into makeup. Because most of MAC's shadows only releasing for a limited time by the time I realized I wanted this it was already sold out. They were recently re-released along with other mineralize shadows and I am so glad I was able to pick these two shades up. Mineralize eyeshadows work best applied with a damp brush to get the most color payoff. In the pictures I swatched the shadows both wet and dry so you could see the difference. The colors are a lot more vibrant when wet and the colors get lost in the black base when used dry.

Keep reading to see swatches

NOTD: Green Glitter

Two coats OPI Jade is the New Black + Two coats LA Girls Glitter Addict in Purge
The glitter addict is green glitter in a clear base.

MAC Dainty

A lot of times I'm usually putting on my makeup in a rush because I'm trying to get out the door. On those days I don't have time to really think about what colors will go together etc... So I usually stick to the basics. Even sometimes when I do have time I feel overwhelmed by choices so I stick to what I know. MAC's mineralize blush in Dainty is what I consider part of my basics. I have a lot of blushes but most of the time I end up wearing this one because it goes with anything and I don't have to think too much about it. The color is a peachy pink with subtle shimmer and can be built up. I like that it goes on a little bit sheer but is buildable because it makes it to not go overboard on the blush. This was actually my very first blush that I ever bought and I've had it for about 2 years. I have since accumulated a lot of other blushes but this is the most frequently used of all.  As you can see from the darker rings around the blush, I have actually hit pan  :)

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Review Maybelline Master Precise Eyeliner

Maybelline's Eye Studio Master Precise eyeliner is a brand new eyeliner that might get overlooked with all the new drugstore launches. If you are a fan of liquid pen type liners I would recommend you pick this up. L'Oreal's Lineur Intense is one of my favorite liners and I have found myself favoring this eyeliner instead on most days. What I like is how flexible and fine tipped the brush is. Because it is thinly tapered it makes it easier to create a winged liner. L'Oreal's liner comes out blacker on first application but the Maybelline liner can be built up to Lineur Intense's darkness. I also like that since it is a pen you don't have to keep dipping it into a base like L'oreal's. I haven't found the flow of liner to be a problem either. Thin and thick lines are easy to create with this liner as well.
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NOTD: LA Girls's Glitter Addict Celebrate

This was my NOTD that I wore the other day for my birthday. One coat OPI Roadhouse Blues as a base. One coat Deborah Lippmman Across the Universe and finally two coats Celebrate.

Maybelline Color Tattoo Review and Swatches

 Maybelline's Color Tattoo's are cream eyeshadows that Maybelline advertises are supposed to last 24hrs on the lid. I can't say that they do last that long because I never wear my makeup that long, but they did last more a long time on my oily lids. I am really impressed with the texture, colors and how long they last. There are more colors available but i chose the more neutral ones because I'm not likely to use an orange or teal cream shadow. These shadows are very creamy and do not feel dry at all. I would definitely compare the quality of these to that of MAC paint pots. These are inexpensive and great quality. I personally use these as bases rather than wearing them as shadows on their own. I've worn Bold Gold under a gold eyshadow and it made the shadow look a lot more gold in color. I also wore the Bronze shadow with a similar color on top and it looked very nice. Bold Gold and Audacious Asphalt do have a little bit of fine shimmer/glitter but nothing crazy. Tough as Taupe has no shimmer or sheen and is "matte". Bad to the Bronze has a sheen. I have been surprised with how much good quality products drugstore brands have been producing.
Keep reading for swatches....

NOTD: Chanel Particuliere

Chanel Particuliere two coats. Beautiful color.