This review has been a long time coming. I meant to get this out before the holidays, however life got busy and I was not able to pull it together. I am glad that I did wait and have some time to test this palette out more.
Hands down this has become one of my favorite palettes. I know I am not the only one as I have seen this palette appear in many vloggers favorites for December. View Post
Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit an Inglot standalone store. There are only a few in the US so I was very excited to check out the store. For some of you who are not familiar with Inglot they are an International cosmetic company that originated in Poland. In many cases they are compared to MAC in the makeup world, however, they are significantly cheaper than MAC. Ingot is more famously known for their customizable palettes called the Freedom System. They have several configurations of palettes to fit your needs. The palettes are magnetized and extremely durable. Check out the possibilities:
So I gave into the buzz and jumped onto the Maybelline Color Tattoo bandwagon. After watching a few video reviews on YouTube I decided to give it a whirl. I purchased one at Rite Aid last Tuesday and was skeptical on picking up any more until I knew it would be worth it. On Friday night I watched Makeupbyleina’s YouTube review raving about all of the colors, so on Saturday morning I embarked on a mission to locate a few more. I scored two more at CVS for $7.50 each and was able to get $5 in CVS bucks when I bought two so it wasn’t too bad.
Now many people are comparing these little beauties to MAC paint pots. Although I own a few paint pots, I can’t say if they perform the same way as I use paint pots strictly as a eyelid primer so the colors that I own are neutral skin toned ones that I put eyeshadow over. If you are familiar with MAC paint pots they do not have nearly the color range that these Maybelline shadows have. As well, MAC paint pots are 5g and Color Tattoo’s are 4g.
As a test, before we went out to dinner last night I used the color tattoo on my eyelid without using any primer (which is rare for me as eyelid primer in my book is a must), but since I read reviews that the color tattoos do not need a primer I wanted to test this out. I wore the shadow for about 6 hours and noticed no creasing whatsoever. As well, the vibrancy of the color seem to last. It applied smoothly using my finger and blended well with my eyeshadow that I used in my crease. I really do think these are a great deal and the packaging is nice and durable, it’s worth a try and if you search around you may find a deal on these.
Here are some photos to enjoy 🙂
I was absolutely THRILLED yesterday when my order of Tarte Cosmetics arrived from Sephora. I’ve been anxiously awaiting this delivery as I have been eager to try “natural” makeup. I have been migrating my life towards natural/organic products about 6 years ago when I was pregnant with my first daughter. We’ve transitioned our food consuption and household cleaning items to about about 70% organic/natural. I chose to do this mostly for my kids. Although I’ve given up soaps and lotions with parabens in it a while ago I didn’t think I would be able to give up some of the “harmful ingredients” when it came to cosmetics….until I found Tarte though a friend Jenn, take a look at her blog.
http://www.jennstaz.com/2011/09/parabens/
She’s in the process of eliminating toxic ingredients out of her cosmetic useage. And I’m all for it. Which is why I decided to put Tarte Cosmetics to the test.
This wonderful Tarte Starlet set has just about almost all eyeshadows you’ll ever need unless you want to get super colorful looks that something like a Coastal Scents 88 Matte would come handy. The packaging is sooooo irresistably cute. It comes in this miror-like acrylic case that resembles a fancy jewelry box that can actually be reused after you finish all of the shadows. You get so much bang for your buck with this set for $52 you get (24) shadows, (1) eyelash primer, (1) mascara, (2) blushes, (1) bronzer and (1) shimmering powder. That is such an unbelieveable deal it’s hard not to get excited about it.
One of my friends who’s an avid makeup junkie warned me that Tarte had quite a bit of fallout so I was very mindful of that this morning when I was using it. I made sure I “tapped” my brush several times after I swiped the shadows with my brush to minimize fallout. I honestly did not find the shadows to have extreme fallout. No more than my Smashbox shadows which I found to have more fallout than MAC. The Tarte shadows were powdery as you might be able to see from the swatch pictures. The pigmentation is good, I wouldn’t say extremely pigmented but I actually don’t mind my shadows being what I like to call medium pigmentation because it allows me to build on the look and color. I primed my eye with a MAC paint pot and I found that the shadow stayed on pretty well all day without any creasing. Unfortunately the pictures I took of the look I did, did not do the colors any justice. The colors were so much more vibrantly plummy than the pictures show. As well, I wore the pink blush and it stayed put all day. I have to say that I am extremely happy with this Tarte set so far! I will definitely be trying more Tarte products. And to make it better, it’s made with “good ingredients.” Tarte has earned another fan-Me!
Ok, so here is the method to the madness in the swatching, I swatched each row of shadows i.e. top left and top right were row one swatched. And I tried to include pictures with flash and without. Hope this is helpful!
I couldn’t wait to try out my new Smashbox products that I purchased from the Smashbox event. I was in search of an everyday palette that was a little different from my others. The trio I chose was the “Head Shot” trio. This trio was unique relative to my makeup collection as it was a warm neutral trio, the dark brown has a lot of warm to it. I was concerned a little about the peachy color making my eyes look tired accentuating redness in my eyes (as I always seem to be-I have two kids!). As well, I tried out the gel liner. I must preface this by saying that I am currently exploring gel liners-I have a few others that are in my queue to try, I have been a huge liquid liner fan. I love the bold line that a liquid liner makes.
So here’s what I used:
One of the first things I noticed was that the shadows were a tiny bit powdery-not a huge problem, just requires a little clean up afterwards. The pigmentation was excellent and the shadow itself was very blendadable. I primed my eye with a MAC paint pot and by the end of the day I did not have any creasing whatsoever. I have extremely oily skin so if I am not wearing good eyeshadow/liner it will crease on me and my liners will smudge. The blush I chose was a pinky color-I normally go for bronzers so I wanted to choose something that was a little more unique to what I currently own.
The gel liner did go on quite smoothly and I was able to create a bold line to my satisfaction. The eyeliner was nothing short of amazing. It stayed on all day and night without budging at all. The eyeliner did remind me a little of MUFE Aqua Eyes. At the event the Smashbox person I talked to swore that the gel liner would not budge and they were correct. Day 2, I wore the same stuff and even took a nap with my face pressed against the pillow and I woke up with my face looking perfect. I have to say that I am quite happy. Smashbox was a smashing success!
