The Makeup Heroes!

Funny how busy my blogging break seems to be :P I'm really excited to show you guys my first video! It's as part of The Makeup Heroes collaboration project, which quite a few beauty bloggers are a part of. If you read Wendy's blog or Wendi's blog (haha), you might have already seen their videos. I'm pretty pumped to be a part of this, so keep watching the channel and you'll see more videos and more bloggers.

Black Rose Minerals review

Edit: So much for me taking a break... I wanted to finish up this review I started ages ago :) After being mesmerized by the swatches on Sirvinya's blog, I decided to place a small order from Black Rose Minerals. I ordered all sample baggies, which are priced at $1, the typical price for most samples from indie companies. They contain 1/8 teaspoon. You can also get 1/4 teaspoon in a mini jar for $2.50. Full sizes cost $6, and you can choose whether or not you want a sifter, which I think is great since I hate sifters. Every color listed on the website has swatches on skin and on the eyelid, which is nice. Some pictures seem to be a lot more color accurate than others, though. Ingredients are listed for every individual color, as well as if they are lip safe, vegan, etc. With so much skepticism surrounding indie makeup companies lately, it's refreshing to see a company so open with their ingredient and safety information (as they all should be). There's currently a 10% off discount code on the front page, and I believe there was one up when I placed my order a while back. I ordered sample sets of the Sprinkles collection, the NSFW collection, as well as various other samples. For some reason some of my sample choices didn't go through when I placed my order, and Rosa, the owner, immediately emailed me to get it worked out. My package was shipped the NEXT DAY. Everything arrived very nicely, with some cute little stickers and a discount code included for my next order. I also got 2 free samples. Swatch time! Top 3: Lioness, Insect, Don't Be Brassy Middle 3: Titania, Confused, Silver & Cold Bottom Lone Wolf: Magic Potion Top 3: Limon, Noxious, Denver Bottom 3: Lady, Candy Floss, Mome Rath Sprinkles Collection Top 3: Meringue, Sunset, Bubble-Bobble Bottom 3: Minty, Prozzac, Ultraviolence NSFW Collection Top 3: Mother Sunflower, Trafficking, Doll Face Bottom 3: Gremlin, Ocean Potion, Dionysus Bonus cat shot! I have nothing but good things to say about this company, the colors are absolutely beautiful and the service is amazing. I've been wearing my BRM shades more than any others ever since I got them. Have you tried Black Rose Minerals? Lemming any shades?

break

Hi everyone. If you follow me on twitter you know I'm going through a bit of a rough patch right now. I just have a lot on my plate and blogging has become a chore instead of a fun hobby. I'm going to take a break from blogging, not sure for how long. Probably a few weeks at least. I'm sure I'll be back in the future, but until then, you can always email me or find me on twitter.

Sparkly purple EOTD

Last night I was bored and decided I wanted to do a really sparkly look. I could have upped the amp and used Pixie Epoxy or another sticky base to make this REALLY sparkly, but I didn't feel like doing the extra work since I wasn't going out anywhere. I used Fyrinnae's "Lemming" on my lid, Kiss My Sass' "Tattoo Shop" in the crease, and Tokidoki liner in "Donutella".

Sephora Must-Have: Smashbox "Radiance" blush

Back many months ago when I visited a Cosmetics Company Outlet, there was an extremely pigmented hot fuchsia Estee Lauder blush. I passed on it, and regretted the decision for months. I decided to go to Sephora to try and find a similar product, and I ended up with a Smashbox blush in the shade "Radiance". You can tell it's bright, but it's even brighter in real life! It has nice, simple packaging. There's a mirror in the bottom of the container that swings out, which I never even noticed until I took these pictures. Cute, but pointless. It looks scary when you swipe it with your finger, but it actually goes on pretty sheer when used with a blush brush. It's a color that looks really natural & pretty on my skintone, and it's become on of my go-to blushes. I also like the finish- no sparkle here, which is nice for when I want to do something more subtle. I've never tried any Smashbox products before this one, and I don't think there's anything else from the brand I'm dying to try, but this blush has become Holy Grail for me. At $24 it was a splurge, but a worthy one!

Darling Girl Spring Fling collection swatches

Susan from Darling Girl was kind enough to send me samples of the Spring Fling collection so I could swatch them for my readers :) Sadly, it seems I've lost the shade 'New Grass', so here is a link to one of my favorite blogs; she has some great swatches of this collection. Top 3: Sorbet, Mango Tango, Forsythia Middle 3: Garden of Weedin', Butterfly Flutterby, Lily of the Valley Bottom 3: Plum Blossoms, Shower of Flowers, Lala I wish my camera would show the complexity of Shower of Flowers, it has a great blue flash to it. Lala also has amazing pink shimmer, which is what I tried to capture with that last picture. Those two are my favorite colors from the collection. A lot of these colors are heavy are the shimmer, so I would recommend using Pixie Epoxy or a similar type product with these. I got on the roof to take these pictures and my kitty Gloria decided to come up too! Here's a look I did with Showers of Flowers and Lala... and a more fun one with Forsythia, Butterfly Flutterby, and some Collection 2000 glitter liner. A customer at work told me I looked like I was going to the carnival :P

Hard Candy Glossaholic review

From reviews I've read, Hard Candy seems to be pretty hit-and-miss with their product line. I can't say myself, since aside from these glosses I've only tried the primer, and I don't see much else from the line that seems too exciting. That being said, I do really like these glosses. They cost $5 and are only available at your local evil empire, Walmart. They have a REALLY strong vanilla-frosting scent to them, which I don't like, but luckily it doesn't stay long. They also sport a giant applicator, which I didn't like at first, but now I do- it has kind of a dip in it, so it can get a lot of gloss in one go, and cover your lips in one go too. It's the same size as the gigantor MAC Wonderwoman glosses- here's a size comparison. Hard Candy, MAC Wonderwoman, Rimmel. I have 3 different colors- Fairy, Tipsy, and Chill Out. Tipsy is a sheer hot pick, and Fairy and Chill Out both show up mostly clear. I love these glosses because they have FLAKIES! Much like my favorite lip gloss of all time, the MAC Superglass (of which I only own one). You can click on the pictures to see them full size so the flakies are much more visible. I just think it looks so cool, I love wearing these with a neutral eye, layered over lipstick, to give my look something more interesting. These glosses are really sticky, which I normally don't like, but I can deal with it for these because they're so gorgeous. Do you have any of these Hard Candy glosses, or tried any others from the line? Do you have any of the coveted MAC Superglass?

Darling Girl Cosmetics Holo-Gloss Review

Right as Susan from Darling Girl Cosmetics was releasing her new collection of Holo-Glosses, she sent me samples of a few colors so I could review and swatch them :) Basically, a Holo-Gloss is a pretty sheer lip gloss, and it has TONS of gorgeous glitter, or an amazing sheen. If you've seen the Lorac 3D glosses, than you have an idea of what I'm talking about. Since they're so sheer, I think they're best for layering over another lipstick or gloss. What I liked about these is that even the ones that are PACKED with glitter don't feel gritty on my lips- the glitter is really fine. It does tend to stay on my lips though, even after everything else has worn off, much like MAC Superglass or the Hard Candy Glossaholics- I don't think there's really a way to avoid this. I get about the same wear time on these as I would any other gloss, which is maybe 2-3 hours. I'm a huge lip licker :P The Holo-Glosses are $4.25 for a 3.5 ml tube, which I think is a great price. These are so amazingly gorgeous, and there's quite a few shades now. After using these, I can't see myself paying $22 for any of the Lorac glosses I was lusting after. Now for the fun part, swatches! I left these first 2 pictures pretty big so you can really see the detail if you click to enlarge. Top 2: Wish You Were Here, Violet Hill Bottom 2: Blue Suede Shoes, Pennies From Heaven Blurry so you can see all the sparkly! Wish You Were Here Violet Hill Blue Suede Shoes Pennies From Heaven Pennies From Heaven is my favorite, and not just because the name was my idea ;) I really want to try Jar of Hearts and Queen of Hearts, I'm sure those will manage to find their way into my cart on my next DG order. Have you tried the Holo-Glosses yet? Which shades are you after?

Purple Darling Girl FOTD

I have a decent amount of Darling Girl products from my last order to swatch, but I'm having difficulties finding time for everything right now because of work and school. Luckily there's only a couple weeks of school left, so I should be able to post a lot more soon. For this look I used a newer color, My Little Pony, on the lid with Whisper as a highlight. My Little Pony is AMAZING, it's a pinky purple with a green duochrome. It's by far one of my most unique shadows, I have nothing like it. Here's a photo that shows off the green: I'm also wearing Little Twin Stars glitter liner over some black liquid liner. I'm wearing Barbie Girl sweet cheeks blush, and Love Bug tinted lip balm. All from Darling Girl Cosmetics. Pretty simple, but I didn't want to do anything too crazy since I was wearing glitter liner.

Venomous Cosmetics review pt. 2

I already talked about the awesome pressed shadows Venomous Cosmetics has to offer, and now I'd like to cover their loose shadows! Samples are $1 and full sizes are $6.50, pretty standard. They adhere very well using a primer, which of course is a necessity with all loose shadows. The colors are all very pretty, some more complex than others. Something I don't like about the full size jars is that the ingredients list is on the inside of the lid. I was sent these a few weeks ago, so that could have changed by now, I'll make an edit if I learn that's the case. Personally, since I don't have allergy concerns or anything, it doesn't matter to me, but I'm sure it could to some people. Here's a sample baggie:

Swatch time! First up is the Well-Traveled collection. Top row: Beaches in Maui, Secrets of Cairo, Irish Countryside Middle row: Vegas Casino Bottom Row: L.A. Smog, Surfing the Gold Coast, NYC Nightlife Surfing the Gold Coast has really pretty yellow sparkle in it, and NYC Nightlife has all this amazing rainbow sparkle to it! They're both really unique colors, and my favorites of the loose shadows. The next 3 are Monster Under Your Bed, Indian Violet, and Falling Star (from the new All-Stars collection). The purple looks patchy, but since I started doing q-tip swatches, all purples I've done have turned out that way, so I'm blaming it on the q-tips. Lip Poisons are the glosses offered by Venomous. They're $3.50 for a purse size (3.7 ml) and $5 for a full size (5.9 ml). The texture is difficult for me to describe... it's thicker than a regular lip gloss, and it's somewhat sticky. When I applied I felt like it kept getting a bit patchy, but after a few minutes everything seemed to kind of settle down to an even coat. I'm really not good with anything lasting a long time, since I constantly snack/apply lip balm/ lick my lips, but it stayed on pretty well through me eating ice cream (albeit carefully), and 3 hours later it was still pretty vibrant. On the left is Genie, on the right is Trouble. I was BLOWN AWAY by these colors! I barely looked at them when I had browsed the Venomous site, but honestly these are my favorite product of what I was sent. I love the shadows, but right now I'm really into lippies, and these colors are just stunning. I did some awesomely awful lip swatches for you guys! Here's Genie: And Trouble: The flash makes Trouble look more flattering on my bare lips than it actually is, the blue in it gives me that 'Zombie Chic' look. It just doesn't work with my skintone by itself, so I've been wearing it layered over other colors. Here's a look I did with L.A. Smog & Surfing the Gold Coast loose shadows, and I'm wearing the Trouble Lip Poison over Clinique Chubby Balm in Super Strawberry. Honestly, my only complaint here is that some of the website photos for the shadows seem inaccurate. The Lip Poison photos seem right on, but some of the shadow photos are too overexposed or something, while some seem too washed out. I know it's difficult to get super accurate photos, but I feel like the current ones could be improved. Overall, I enjoyed everything I tried from Venomous, and I would certainly recommend them, especially if you're going through a pressed shadow phase as a lot of people seem to be. Don't skip over the Lip Poisons as they're the company's hidden gem, IMO! And it looks like there's going to be lip and eyeliners coming soon, which is neat. Disclaimer: I got everything mentioned in this review for free. This did not change my review, it's all my honest opinion.