China Glaze’s Magnetix collection

I had cautiously stayed out of the whole “magnetic polish” craze, but once China Glaze entered the market I bought their entire collection. I like that the magnet has multiple designs, and is separate from the bottles. The colors in this collection are cooler shades: khaki green, blue, two purples, charcoal, and a gold-brown. I wasn’t initially thrilled with the colors, but I really wanted to get the whole collection on pre-order. (I also bought myself a backup magnet,...

Stila’s Live from the Red Carpet Smudge Stick Duo kit

This “Live from the Red Carpet” collection apparently held several other items at one point: convertible color (which is still available), this set, a lipgloss trio (which I think I bought and quickly rehomed, at one point, me not being a huge fan of lipglosses,) and a couple of eyeshadow palettes. I only was interested in this set, though. When I first saw it I thought - what? Brown and black are not special colors, they must have just named...

elf’s Golden

A soft golden-brown with a medium shimmer. The color payoff is a bit slight…but it's about on par with Bare Escentuals' “glimpse” colors, and costs significantly less, so it's a decent value. The color depth and intensity is about the same applied wet as dry - there's more apparent shimmer when it's applied wet. This could be a contour or liner shade in a softer look with either pale or nearly-sheer shades accompanying it.

MAC’s Desert Cloud pigment

This has a similar issue as Moss Garden: it looks like the pigment may have dried out a little bit, it has its coloring but the metallic finish is nearly gone and it doesn't apply as smoothly as other MAC pigments (non-metallic ones, most notably.) The color itself is nice. It just seems to have suffered being stored in a jar other than the one MAC packaged it in. (Or that would have happened over a longer period of time...

Shiro Cosmetics’ Baker’s Boy

A lighter color payoff than expected, unless I make a conscious effort to apply more. It's warmer, but not so yellow that I have problems wearing it with my cool undertones. There's a good shimmer finish that doesn't disappear when the color's applied dry, and a nice underlying brown to the color. I don't know that I'd be able to use this as a contouring shade, unless I was going for a very soft look. I haven't tried it, but...

Aromaleigh v2’s Down the Chimney

Almost-but-not-quite a color changer. It changes color (for me, at least) depending on application, not light angle. Foiled, you see the faded-denim blue. Applied dry, the primary color is a cool slate grey. There's a bit more shimmer in this color than in some of Aromaleigh's more recent “shimmer” shades, which I like. The color payoff is also very good. At the time of its release, the Holly Days collection was the best collection from Aromaleigh v2 in terms of...

Saturday Soundtrack: Dead Man’s Party (Oingo Boingo)

So last week I went to Chris Nolan's final Batman film, and Dad and I were talking about Tim Burton's versions...which lead me to start thinking about Danny Elfman, who wrote the orchestral score for the first movie (you didn't know that? Yep, he did) which in turn got me remembering my Oingo Boingo CDs that I hadn't listened to in a while. The video below isn't the version that's on the two CDs that I have (both Dead...

NYX Cosmetics’ Twinkle Star Black Label Lipstick (193)

NYX Cosmetics’ Twinkle Star Black Label Lipstick (193)

There isn't any twinkle, just a softer shade. It's a little lighter than Tea in the Afternoon, but not so light that it's a pink or a pastel.

MAC’s Moss Garden pigment

I don't know why this applied the way it did, so patchy even when applied wet. Maybe these metallic pigments don't like sitting in my standard 10-gram jars for long periods of time? I know that most other MAC pigments don't have a problem…but these seem to be a little tetchier. All of the Butterfly Party pigments were cool-toned, and had similar levels of saturation.