Beauty Blog Advent Calendar rides again!

This year, I sent out initial invites in October 2012. One person declined, because they didn't know if they could post something every day. Another dropped out a few weeks later, because Real Life handed her new changes in her life (positive!!) that she wanted to prioritize. A third person had to drop at the last minute - again due to scheduling conflicts. So again this year, we're only three bloggers. We'll still be doing brief posts every day. We've got...

Friday Flash Giveaway: Black and White

This giveaway is open to everyone - but you have to register with the site as part of the entry. This giveaway is for black mascara (Bare Escentuals' Flawless Definition in Black) and liquid eyeliner (Stila's Stay All Day Liquid Eyeliner in Snow.) To be eligible, you must both register for the site (or already be registered) and leave a comment on this entry. This giveaway is open internationally. Because of the holidays, your package may take a little longer...

Urban Decay’s Ocho Loco kit

I do like Urban Decay’s liner pencils - they apply very smoothly and adhere well, they stay put, and there are some really lovely shades in the line. But they’re so costly!! $22 per pencil - that’s nearly twice the cost of the Sephora Flashy Liners that I love so much, that perform just as well. Generally I would only buy the full-size Urban Decay pencils if Sephora’s line didn’t have the shade (Eldorado, for example.) ...

OPI’s Thanks a Wind-Million

OPI’s Wooden Shoe Like To Know

A really nice rich-milk-chocolate brown with faint red-gold flakies. The base color is just a tiny bit darker than Zoya's Dea; and the red-gold scattered shimmer looks a little like Warm and Fozzie. Application was wonderful, but the polish is just a tiny bit thinner than I'd like. I think that if you have really long nails (unlike mine, for which 1/8 inch is reason to celebrate) you might need to use three coats to get rid of any trace of...

Beauty from the Earth’s Fall 2012 collection kit

This kit was supposed to be limited-edition, available for a short time only…but it’s still available for purchase. This is a nice color quad, and none of the colors are currently available for individual purchase. I like Sweetgum and Sycamore the best. Sassafrass is the “green” in the group, but it leans more gold than green - at least to my eyes. Silver Maple is a little softer than I personally prefer, but the upside is that for...

Beauty from the Earth’s Some Girls Bite

Not quite an orange-red, but more so than Pasqua or Aldebaran. The shimmer is a bit more noticeable in this color than in those two, however. Pigmentation is excellent, and while the color is very saturated, there was no skin-staining, not even when I swatched this foiled with no primer. I can wear this carefully, and sparingly. I don't like pairing it with black or deep charcoal - nothing that would play up the orange or the brightness. I can...

Fyrinnae’s Ethereal Éire

One of the eight colors released in Fyrinnae's Samhain 2012 collection (which will remain as part of the regular line. Like its other collections, Fyrinnae doesn't do LE colors, instead only discontinuing a color when its ingredients are no longer available…or, presumably, when a color just doesn't sell.) Ethereal Éire is a softer silvered/gilded clear medium-light green. First visual impressions of the color can look like it's a bit muted or greyed - but that's not the case. Applied,...

BareMinerals’ And Away We Go kit

Neither the most nor the least fascinating kit. I picked up the color-pieces on Ebay. Luxury blush is a very nice gilded coral-tan, and the primer shadow is very interesting - it reminded me, just a little bit, of Sally Hansen’s Opulent Cloud. I had the hardest time finding the lip color, though. Either I was just looking at the wrong times, or it was popular enough that it was either kept and sold friend-to-friend, or was sold almost...

BareMinerals’ Rethink Remarkable kit

2nd kit in the “Rethink” autodelivery series, released autumn 2010. I liked the color combination in this kit a bit better than the final installment, these actually look somewhat autumnal - but I tend to wear these colors with other things, instead of as a group. The dark grey eyeliner gets a lot of use from me, since I prefer dark grey or brown liners to solid black.