Light Brushstrokes | Bleu Cobalt et Iridescent Violette - My Attempt at Editorial Eye Makeup

Clean-cut, crisp eye makeup on the top, and a happy imperfect mess on the bottom! I wanted to create a look that exemplifies my overall views and feelings towards makeup, and show that I don't mind being imperfect, nor do I mind being a makeup enthusiast, and not a professional! 

Scroll down to see what products were used to create this beautiful iridescent look!

Witchy Inspiration: An Elphaba 'Unbecoming' Smokey Eye | MORPHE 'Boss Mood' Palette

     Well hello all! Just when I thought my blog was at the point of being impossible to bring back from the dead (seriously, how much of a zombie could this blog possibly get? LOL!), I had it in mind to post the Wicked inspired eye makeup that I donned for Halloween night, after a day of having dressed up as Sherlock Holmes' wife, Mary Russell.

     Whilst looking through the Morphe display in Ulta about a month back, I immediately saw this palette, and thought, 'Yep, Elphie would wear these colors' and I just had a dapper little inkling-dinkling that this would be going home with me. This is my first Morphe purchase, and I have to say, I had pretty low expectations and buyer's remorse instantaneously, and I felt that guilty pang before I even checked out and paid for this palette! I thought, 'Why am I doing this? The quality is probably terrible,' and just negative thoughts of all sorts that I tend to associate with Morphe, as I overall see them as a pretty shady, negative brand, in retrospect of their behavior and business practices I've noticed in the past. While I think I love the color story of this 35M Boss Mood Palette moreso than most palettes in my collection, I do, however, think this will be my only Morphe purchase.

Morphe 35M Boss Mood

Steps

1. Transition - On primed eyes (with no setting powder on my lids whatsoever - it's the best way I've found to use this formula), I blended and overlapped two of the murky yellow-toned greens in this palette rather high up above my crease. First, I used the more mustard green, 'Hello Sunshine' more on the outer half of my crease, and the slightly lighter (but a bit of a brighter lime green) 'Stroke of Luck' on the inner half of the crease, overlapping it slightly into the green on the outer corner. I find that by not setting my eye primer with a thin layer of translucent powder like I normally do, that's when these Morphe shadows really shine and the most of their pigment comes out to play.
2. The Outer Corner and Crease - Knowing that I wanted purple to be the central focus of this look, I blended a matte eggplant, 'Power Slayer' (this one is atrociously patchy, and needs to be packed on - definitely a dud in the palette, no bueno) into my outer third of the mobile lid space and softly blended the color inward right above the socket of my crease, going about half way in.
3. That Bright Magenta Purple Lid, Tho! - The star of this look is definitely that gorgeous, electrified mid-toned magenta purple nestled on the bottom row, called 'Grape Expectations'. This had amazingly saturated pigmentation and was best applied with my finger. No glitter glue was used.
4. Lower Lashline: Wash, Rinse Repeat - I mirrored the placement on the eyelid onto my bottom lashline. I also made use of a red eyeliner in my waterline that gave the look something special. For this, I used NYX Faux Black Eyeliner in 'Oxblood'. 
5. Liner & Lashes - NYX Matte Liquid Liner framed my upper lashline, and Essence Lash Princess Mascara. 

On My Cheeks

1. Highlight - Colourpop Super Shock Cheek in 'Felicity' (entirely too sparkly for daily use, so I decided the best time to wear this was Halloween)
2. Bronzer - Too Faced Milk Chocolate Soleil Bronzing Powder 
3. Blush - Milani 'Romantic Rose' Powder Blush

Voila! I've been changed for good!

🌟🌙Alright loves, feel free to link any creative and colorful looks you've done lately down in the comments section! I would love to see them! Take care. 😀

Colourpop Goodies (I Should've Posted this in February. . .)

Hi there! Yes, I'm still alive on this 'ere blogosphere! At this point, I think it's pretty obvious that my sliiight obsession with Colourpop isn't going anywhere, at least not anytime soon...

Most of these products were from their Valentine's Day collection (plus their Flexitarian Supershock Highlight, which I purchased in the same order along with the V-Day collection) - as far as the limited edition Valentine's collection, a beautiful mini 6-pan palette of lovely cool toned eyeshadows, and three new shades from their lineup of Supernova Liquid Shadows. So since I bought these products back in February, I think I've had more than enough time to test them out, and I have a better idea of which ones I would recommend! So yesterday when I looked back on the Colourpop online shop for the first time in eons, I realized that, lo and behold, most of these products were still available to purchase on their site! So, naturally, here we are with a blog post and swatches! 😄

Supernova Liquid Shadows

L-R: From the Valley, Prelude, Over Again

     Ahh, my very first foray into the Colourpop Supernova line...so, all in all, I do quite enjoy the look these give once applied, but getting to that place of application is rather tricky. I find that putting the applicator directly onto my eyelids makes for a rather streaky application, and entirely too much applies when I use the applicator to apply them to my lids. Whenever I transfer the liquid shadow straight from the applicator to eyelid, they would dry down, and would instantly add a bunch of crepey texture to my eyelid, and the color would flake off entirely within the next hour. If I tried to blend in any way before they set, so much product was applied, that they would just look even more streaky, so blending afterwards was a no-go, when I used that method. 

     The way I opt to apply these is by simply dispersing some product onto my fingertip from the applicator and applying and blending them out in that way, so I have more control over how much product goes onto my eyelid, y'knows? In fact, that's the only way I've found to apply these so they look nice throughout wear and don't flake off. Beautiful duochromes in this lineup, but I always have to layer them over a colored eyeshadow cream or powder for them to really give that desired wow effect, as they are a bit sheer and much of that huzzah! factor is lost when they're applied to a bare primed lid. So the formula could definitely be tweaked a bit with these...

Colourpop Pretty Much Pigment Palette, $12

Swatches L-R: Ya Bish, It Me, NVM, OTP, Neither Do I, Cool It

     This little pocket-friendly number has a pretty lovely array of some beautiful berry pinks and purple tones, mixed with a couple cooler toned neutrals and a nice dose of a bronze shimmer. However, I find that the pink and bronze shimmers in this palette are a tad bit crumbly, and are quite flaky and dry, and take a little more work than I expected them to, as they need to be packed onto the lid to show up (which, I must say, is quite uncharacteristic and very unusual of Colourpop's quality as far as their pressed shadows go - maybe my palette was a fluke with those two shades, but I was left pretty disappointed, nonetheless), and although the mattes in the palette blend out fantastically and near flawlessly, I find that the only matte that is unique to my Colourpop collection is the matte taupe in this palette in 'NVM'. The other two mattes, 'Neither Do I' and 'Cool It,' are near identical to the mattes in my Fem Rosa palette, so this palette is just a bit repetitive for my needs.

I would wager that if you don't own the Fem Rosa palette, this might be a nice addition if you like the tones. However, if you own that palette already (or have similar tones) then this palette may be a bit superfluous for you, as it was for me.

Penny for your thoughts? I'd love to hear them! Sound off in the comments and tell me: As far as Colourpop palettes, what different color stories/combinations would you like to see released in their pocket sized palettes?

Most Loved & Most Worn : Lip Edition!

     Alright, I realize that my development of blogging habits has been a long-ass time coming! That's why I'm taking my long awaited short break from studying, and some time to curate a post of no less (and, no more!) than all of my favorite and most worn everyday schmexy lip colors! (Schmexy? Ok, I'll go home now 😁). So yep, no specific color spectrum here - these are just the lipsticks and lip glosses of different formulas that I reach for the most - although most of them are in the family of more muted to slightly brightened pinks and corals, those are just the types of colors I love and use the most! You'll be able to see how much I adore a couple of these, too, as some of the lipsticks are pretty worn down, and one of the glosses is almost completely gone. So, despite the variation of lip formulas in this post (liquid lipsticks, traditional lipsticks, sheer glosses, etc), I decided to exclude any mention of lip balms or any kind of lip treatments from this roundup, as I will soon be making an updated post, subject matter being, ahem, all my favorite lip balms and lip treatments! However, that's for the future! This post will contain swatches towards the end, as well as descriptions of all the lip colors and glosses I use most often, most of which I wouldn't be caught dead without!