Inglot Eye Shadows

As you may have noticed in this post, I acquired four Inglot eye shadow squares while I was vacationing in Las Vegas. I'd never used the brand before, but I was excited to after hearing rave reviews from other bloggers. I actually couldn't decide what to get the first time I went in, I was so overwhelmed by all of the things I wanted! I ended up going back in the next day and picking up a few things, including four eye shadows and a Freedom System palette to house them in. I decided on some flattering neutral colors I could use in a lot of different looks, as well as all together when I wanted a quick, no-brainer look that would go with a bunch of different outfits and be appropriate for different occasions. I have to say, I did pretty good! These four along with a highlight color are gorgeous and provide a lot of depth on the eye; a little bit of grey or brown eyeliner makes it a nice casual daytime look; if I want something more dramatic, I do darker eyeliner and add more of the two darkest colors from the palette.

Two of the shades are matte formulas. The mattes are 363 and 344. 363 is a minky mauvish brown, and 344 is a warm muddy pink. The third shade I bought is Shine 37, which is an auburn brown with a bit of a metallic glow and some fine silver shimmer. The final shade is Pearl 402, which is a glowy, iridescent hard to describe greyed pinky-orange with some brown in it. This one really adds a lot of depth to my eyes and makes them pop.

These shadows are really nice; they're all very creamy and incredibly pigmented. These are some of the easiest to work with mattes that I've encountered. The shades are $5 each and have .09 ounces of product in them; the freedom system palette that I bought to house them in doesn't seem to be available online, but the 3 slot palette is $7, and it couldn't have been much more expensive than that.

No Flash; clockwise from top left is 402, 37, 363, and 344

With flash. 

No Flash; clockwise from top left is 402, 37, 363, and 344, just like in the palette. 

With flash; same order as before. 

And here is a look I did awhile ago using these eye shadows. It was long enough ago that I'm not sure what else I used, but if I had to guess, I'd say that Urban Decay's 24/7 liner in Baked is on the lower lashline, and Rockstar on the top lashline. I know I used Inglot's AMC Matte Lip Pencil in 19 in these pictures.

No Flash:

With Flash:

I've been really happy with these shadows, I'm just sad that I don't live closer to an Inglot store! These are affordable and perform great.

Long Awaited Vegas Haul!

Hey guys,

As you may recall, I went to Las Vegas in August. I bought a lot of makeup while I was there. Here is my haul!

I became the proud owner of a bath bomb (which I still haven't used! I finally have a bathtub to use it in, though!), Inglot Highlighting Powder in 89 (I use it as a blush/ bronzer), two Inglot nail polishes (the previously reviewed Inglot 964 and a flakie), NARS' Velvet Matte pencil in Train Bleu, four Inglot eyeshadows (dang it, I can't seem to get them out of the palette without damaging them to tell you which shades they are... Let me work on that, I'd like to do a review of them at some point), Urban Decay's 15th Anniversary Palette, and two of UD's new liquid liners in Siren and Revolver. I also got a sample of UltraFlesh's mascara, which I actually really like!

Not pictured is an Inglot lip pencil in 19, which is a kind of brick/coral color.

Makeup Experiment!

As ill-advised as this experiment was, I went for it anyway. Why ill-advised, you may ask? Well, not only did I decide to play with all of the old (how old? really old...) makeup I unpacked when I moved, I decided to do each half of my face differently in order to maximize the variety of old makeup I was able to slap on there. I have to say, it was a lot of fun, but I'm not sure I would wear either look out without modifying a couple of things.

So. On one half of my face, I did a grey eye and a really subtle pale pink cheek and lip. I'd amp up the cheek and/or lip if I were going to go out with this look; I feel like it made me look washed out. The eye itself was nice, though. I wouldn't normally do a wash of one semi-dark color without a separate eyeliner or contour color to set it off, but it didn't look as stark as I thought it would.

On the other half of my face, I did lots of purples and reds. I kind of feel like that half of my face came out looking a bit like drag queen makeup. Not that there's anything wrong with that... It's just definitely not the look I'm going for! However, it was fun to do something way bolder than I'd ever do for real life.

Because of the number of products I used in this post, fair warning: it's going to be a doozy! I'm not doing a full review of everything I used, but I do want to give some general impressions, for my own personal reference, and in case anyone reading has questions. If there is anything in this post you'd like to see a full review of, please let me know; I'm willing to take requests!

Grey Eye Look:

All of these pictures were taken without flash under unnatural light (except for the collection of what I used, but that doesn't count)!

What I used

 I accidentally left out the powder I used in this picture; it was Physician's Formula Mineral Wear Correcting Powder. It's a pressed powder with beige, pink, and yellow swirls. It's a really soft formula and a kind of weird texture, so my brush always picks up more than I want. Also, I think it looks really "powdery" on my skin, though I think the color correcting claim is accurate. It plays down any redness I have just a tad, so if that is a concern of yours, it might be worth looking into this line. I wonder if it would do better applied with some sort of a velvety powder puff than a brush, where it might get pressed into the skin more instead of just set on top of the skin. Does that make sense? Anyway, it's not a favorite of mine, though I don't hate it enough to toss it.

So, here's a list of the products used:

Face: Rimmel 25 Hour Foundation in 100/ Ivory, Physician's Formula Mineral Wear Correcting Powder, Revlon Powder Blush in "Love That Pink" (Discontinued) across the entire cheek, pink blush from an unknown Stila palette on the apples of the cheeks. I have no idea what palette this is, and there is no identifying information on it anywhere, other than the name "Stila" on the front. I am positive it is old and discontinued; if anyone recognizes it, though, I'd be curious to know what it is! I feel like I probably picked it up at Nordstrom Rack or something like that.

Eyes: Benefit BadGal as base from lash line to the bottom of the crease, bareMinerals in Unforgettable on top of BadGal, blended into the crease. Revlon Matte in Vintage Lace blended from top of crease to the brow bone, applied more heavily as a highlighter in the inner corner and just below the eyebrow. I tapped a bit of the silver side of Maybelline's EyeStudio in Silver Starlet in the outer half of the crease. I used L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes mascara.

Lips: Discontinued The Body Shop sheer lipstick/ tinted balm in 01; I'm not sure how these correlate to the new Delipscious Sheer Lip Colors, but this one is a pale yellow pink with some silver shimmer in it.

The blush from the Stila palette; it's the pink one on the bottom.

Grey and pink polka dot jammies! Weird powdery texture! There's a reason this powder was hidden away in a box for a year... 

Close-up of the eye makeup

Btdubs, I used mauve eyeshadow to fill in my brows since it was the closest matte eyeshadow at hand.  Who does that? But it  didn't look freakish. 

Close up of my lips

Purple Look: 

And here is the other look! I'm not thrilled with the way the cheek products blended. Or, more specifically, did not blend. I'm not really sure who the culprit is; the foundation, the powder, or any of the four cheek products I used, but they just seemed to make a weird soupy mess on my face. Oh well, that's why this was an experiment.

This is what I used, minus the lip products

Here's a close-up of the Aromaleigh colors. Mostly because I was afraid I would forget which ones they were. 

Face: Rimmel 25 Hour Foundation in 100/Ivory, Physician's Formula Pearls of Perfection in Translucent, Urban Decay Powder Blush in Lounge, e.l.f. All Over Color Stick in Pink Lemonade, Benefit High Beam, Physician's Formula Shimer Strips in Healthy Glow (just the lighter colors, used as a highlighter).

Eyes: MAC Fluidline in Dark Diversion as a base over the lid and into the crease (and again later as liner on the top and bottom lashline), Ulta eyeshadow in Eggplant on top of Dark Diversion, Aromaleigh Frumious and Lovelorn over the lid and blended into the crease, Aromaleigh Alloy as an inner corner highlight, Aromaleigh Pass the Tarts near the lashline, Revlon Matte in Vintage Lace blended up to the lashline. I think there may be some of Benefit's High Beam blended around the browbone, as well! I used a MAC wax stick to set the shape of my brows. I also tried out a new sample of Bobbi Brown's Extreme Party Mascara in Black, and so far I am liking it!

Lips: Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense in 13 with Tarina Tarantino's Victorian Punk (discontinued) on top.

And the lip products! MUFE Rouge Artist in 13 and Tarina Tarantino in Victorian Punk 

And the look! 

Eye Closed!

Eye sort of open! 

 Can we take a moment to talk about the lips? These colors combined in a really unexpected way. On it's own, the MUFE lipstick is a dark raspberrywith some shimmer. It's a fairly dark purpley pink, but pulls pinker than most dark berry colors. The gloss is light purple with the faintest hint of a blueish violet shift and specks of silver shimmer. When I put the gloss over the lipstick, the lipstick brightened up, and that faint duochrome shift in the gloss that barely shows up over bare lips really came alive! Plus, glitter. I would definitely do this combination again, but with more neutral eye and face makeup.

The lips! It's really neat how each of these products really changed the look of the other, they came together looking nothing like I thought they would. 

So, that was my morning of experimentation! There are things I would do again, and there are things I am glad I tried out, but would not repeat. For instance, I loved the purple lip and the grey eye, but I was not a fan of the way the cheek turned out for the purple eye look. I think I need to find a better way to apply the Fluidline as an eyeliner. It was really pretty as an all-over wash of color (but I would use it on top of a primer next time), but when I used it with a small bent liner brush as a liner, I feel like there was a faint stripe between two thicker lines where the product got pushed to the side by the brush. I need to find a better way to apply the eyeliner.

What about you guys? Have you experimented and discovered something surprising lately?

NOTD: Inglot 964. And some Star Trek. And a Very Fat Cat.

Hi Everyone,

I have been going through all of the photographs on my computer, and I'm finding a bunch of old things I never posted. One of my favorites is Inglot's Nail Enamel in 964, part of their Grey Collection. It's not really grey at all, though; it's a beautiful blackened purple with a bit of a pearl finish to it. I guess I can see some grey in it, but that's not the first adjective I'd use to describe it. These has .51 ounces in it, and are $8.50 each US through Inglot's Website.  I picked my bottle up at Inglot's store at the Forum Shops in Vegas.

Speaking of Vegas: Shoddily thrown together last-minute Star Trek: TOS costumes! I'd change half a dozen things if I were to do this again, but for a couple of day's work and my first time sewing knits (they wobble :( !!!), it was fine.

I'm going to be honest; I took the pictures for this post a long time ago, so I don't remember as many details about this formula as I wish I did. I do remember it being a nice, controllable formula that was fairly easy to apply, with a minimum of visible brushstrokes despite the metallic, pearly finish. The bottle and brush are both fairly basic; nothing much to recommend it, but nothing to detract from it. However, I DO remember being really disappointed at how quickly my nails chipped. I had to take this off and start over after a couple of days because it looked so bad. I know, I know, things chip faster on me than on other people; I have really awful nails. But this wore worse than average on me. Not that this stops me from wearing it, but it's a pain when I can spend $2 on a nail polish at Target that will stay looking nice for 5 days, and then spend $9 on a polish like this that looks a wreck after 2 days. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Oh well, wear time can suck it; I just want pretty colors.

Aaand, pictures:

Look at that bronzey pink flash! Some of that comes out in bright light on the nail, but it's not nearly as pronounced. 

No flash; you can see the grey tones better here. 

And with flash! See, a kind of blackened plum! 

So, no rating this time; I haven't had this on my nails recently enough to feel confident about that, and besides all that, I'm thinking about re-doing my rating scale. I feel like it got out of whack, and some things that I really genuinely liked were clocking in at a 6, and things that I didn't like all that much were getting a 5... Well, that's a whole different conversation. Suffice it to say, for now, I'll give you a few pro's (the beautiful color) and cons (it chips), and tell you that despite the cons, I still think this is a beautiful and unique polish that is worth checking out if you're into dark, edgy, vampy colors.

Aaaand, cat!

Sorry...

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the extended hiatus. I have no excuse, other than that I got really overwhelmed with everything going on in my life, and had a mini breakdown where I tried to streamline and reduce stress. This blog got kind of lost in the shuffle. The good news?

I have finished my coursework towards my MA (haven't finished the final paper, but I officially have no more class sessions in this degree)! I am aggressively thesis-bound. I have moved! My boyfriend and I are living in a beautiful new home and I now have a *real* place to do my makeup located in our guest bedroom. I have a set of drawers housing nothing but makeup, and a desk I've re-purposed as a vanity that also houses nothing but makeup. And more drawers in the closet for my nail polish! It is a veritable wonderland.

So, what does this mean for you, my followers? I'll be trying to get back into blogging mode. My camera started seriously dying around the time I stopped blogging, and that's not really fixed, so we'll see how that goes. That was one of the problems; it became a major pain in the ass to photograph anything. Once again, sorry for not blogging for so long, but this is supposed to be a fun venture for everyone involved, and it had become one of the things keeping me up at night worrying. I'll see what I can do about getting my camera to work with me so I can start getting some new content up here. In the meantime... happy makeuping!