Entries for Tuesday May 31
Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Cream 5
- Manufacturer: Make Up For Ever
- Availability: Make Up For Ever and Sephora
- Color Range: gilded peach shimmer
- Staying Power: 4 out of 4
- Cost/Amount: USD$22 for 5.95 grams / .21 ounces
- Would you purchase again: yes...if it was eye-safe
Maybe I applied it a little heavily; but this is almost too bright a color for me, for my lips. I wish that this color could be worn on my lids, because I think it would look great (a bit like Rubenesque, but a little brighter and with a touch more heft); but this is one of the shades that’s specifically marked as lip- and cheek-safe, not eye-safe.
In the pot, this looks like a nice enough, if plain, apricot-peach shade. The gold doesn’t show up until it’s swatched or applied. The color dries quickly and stays in place very well. I didn’t try applying it to my cheeks, though I can imagine that a much lighter application would give a nice highlighting effect with subtle coloring and brightening.
If this were eye-safe, I’d buy it again in a heartbeat. As it is, it doesn’t work for me as a lip color…but that’s personal preference for the shade. I may try one of the other lip-safe Aqua Creams, some of the redder colors that will work better with my complexion. I may try this as a lip color again, but I’ll probably have to use a different application method - something lighter, where less of the color transfers and I get more of a gilded peach wash.
NYX Cosmetics’ Peach Round Lipstick
- Manufacturer: NYX Cosmetics
- Availability: part of the Round Lipstick collection
- Color Range: coral-rose shimmer
- Staying Power: 2 out of 4
- Cost/Amount: USD$4.50 for .14 ounces / 4 grams
- Would you purchase again: yes - but only from etailers, because the tubes aren't sealed
I like this shade! It doesn’t seem to match with the color name, though (there are quite a few NYX Cosmetics colors, across the line, that seem to have a serious disconnect between color name and actual color). I would like to find this equivalent in the Black Label collection, because that formulation lasts longer without migrating or fading away. The Round Lipsticks are great for color range and price, but they don’t have much staying power.
Entries for Monday May 30
Sassy Minerals’ Wanton Disregard
- Manufacturer: Sassy Minerals
- Availability: available as part of the regular eyeshadow line
- Color Range: silvered beige-rose shimmer
- Staying Power: 3 out of 4 stars
- Cost/Amount: $4.25 for 1 gram
- Would you purchase again: yes
- Similar shades:
Interestingly enough, this is very much like another product I recently swatched. Wanton Disregard is the loose-powder mineral match-up for Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Cream 16. Yes, it’s a little less pigmented…but cream versus powder? Not too surprising that the mineral powder is less pigmented. Some of Sassy’s colors definitely look better foiled than applied dry, and this is definitely one of them. The shimmer is much more apparent, the rose is visible when dry but it’s just a little too dark for use as a highlighter.
Meow Cosmetics’ Resisting Arrest
- Manufacturer: Meow Cosmetics
- Availability: available as part of the VandalEyes collection
- Color Range: red with hot pink sheen
- Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
- Cost/Amount: USD$8 for 1.2 grams
- Would you purchase again: yes
- Similar shades:
It’s a vibrant red with slight pink tones. It isn’t garishly bright, but it’s not a jeweltone red, either. I think it could be amped up if applied over a dark primer base, and if I use a light hand I get a stroke of color that looks more like a blush-rose pink.
BareMinerals’ High Shine Copper
- Manufacturer: Bare Escentuals (purchase
)
- Availability: released in the Golden and Gorgeous kit
- Color Range: metallic copper-tan shimmer
- Staying Power: 3 out of 4 stars
- Cost/Amount: $16 for .05 ounces / 1.5 grams
- Would you purchase again: yes
- Similar shades:
There’s surprisingly little “copper” in this color. It’s a good, solid metallic gold-brown with some hints of copper, but the main color doesn’t show as “copper” to me - either applied wet or dry.
As with all of BE’s high shine colors, depot the shadow and use a regular brush instead of the included sponge applicator. (You’ll be a heck of a lot happier with the application.)
Meow Cosmetics’ VandalEyes collection
- Vendor: Meow Cosmetics
- Availability: from the company's webstore
- Contains: 17 eye colors
- Cost/Amount: USD$7.00 for 2 grams; $1 for a sample baggie
- Would you purchase again: yes
I held off on trying these colors from Meow for the longest time - but I don’t remember why. (I hate that.) The collection isn’t large, but these are some of the most colorful eyeshadows I’ve seen from Meow. The color payoff’s surprisingly good, too - which hasn’t always been the case with all of their other collections.
Entries for Saturday May 28
Saturday Soundtrack: Avanti (Corvus Corax)
I hadn't heard of this group when I first heard this song, but quickly tracked down the album a few weeks ago and have had it playing ever since. I haven't been able to find their music for purchase in MP3 format anywhere I looked (though it's probably available off of some Russian-based MP3 site) but you can get their CDs new without paying terrifying "collector" prices.
I've collected several videos off of YouTube (all of these are on that Best Of album, by the way, so if you like them, you can get them all in one place.) They're audio-only with still photos...but it lets you hear the music.
The image is copyrighted by the band's label - Copyright holder: Agency "Stephanie NeumannPica Music - Promotion & Werbung" and may be used when properly accredited. Picture found on Wikipedia.
Entries for Thursday May 26
BareMinerals’ Naughty Girl kit
- Manufacturer: bareMinerals/Bare Escentuals
- Availability: beginning November 2008 through webstore, boutiques, and channel partners
- Contains: 2 eyecolors, 1 blush, and 1 lip color
- Cost/Amount: USD$39.00
- Would you purchase again: yes
Zoya’s Re-Cher-Che collection
- Vendor: Zoya/Art of Beauty
- Availability: beginning January 2006 through the webstore and salon retailers
- Contains: 6 nail colors
- Cost/Amount: USD$36.00
- Would you purchase again: not the whole kit; but individual colors, yes
I like a few of the colors in this collection, but most of them are a little too soft and sheer for my preferences. (Arielle and Fawne are the only colors that are not 3-opacity, meaning “semi-sheer”. For the longest time, none of these colors appealed to me. The shades were nice enough, and a fairly good mix of warm and cool colors; but the semisheer bit…wasn’t my favorite. I do like the two colors that I have, but I won’t be getting any of the others.
NYX Cosmetics’ Pearl Mania collection
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Manufacturer: NYX Cosmetics
- Availability: drugstores and midrange "all-in-one" stores (Ulta, CVS, Rite-Aid, Fred Meyer, Target, Kohl's, et cetera) also through various etailers (cherryculture.com, beautyjoint.com)
- Contains: 30 eyeshadow colors
- Cost/Amount: USD$3.00 for .06 ounces / 1.7 grams
- Would you purchase again: yes
I have about 10 colors from this collection, all bought from Cherryculture during their NYX mega-sale in late April. I actually bought two of some shades, because I can’t do math and so ordered some twice so that I’d have my “traditional” full ten-gram jar. One of these tiny vials fills a 10-gram sifter jar quite handily!! The texture is sometimes a little gritty/sandy, the finish is mildly shimmery - more like a dull frost than a pearl - and the wearability is okay, but not fantastic - maybe a little bit better than what you’re paying for, if you buy from Cherryculture or Beauty Joint and are expecting color, but not “knock your socks off” vibrancy. The colors themselves cover a good range, and their darker colors - Penny, Chaos, Space - are fairly nice.