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Swatch Saturday: Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette

/ Kayla Hutchison / 13 Comments

too faced chocolate bar

I feel like I went the cliche route with my picture today, but I had to. How can you not with this cute little palette?

Okay, so I may be the last blogger to review this palette, but I’m going to anyway. Maybe it’s something that someone viewing my blog has been on the fence about for a couple weeks or a year (me), or maybe you need to revisit this palette and need to be reminded of it’s gorgeous aroma.

Yes, this palette has an aroma. It smells like chocolate and the dreams. If kitten dreams had a smell, they would smell like this palette. Okay, enough about the scent.

This palette can be found at sephora.com or toofaced.com…but I actually snagged this from a blogger that had only swatched this and wanted to sell it. Regular price of this palette is $49. Oh, and you can also get it from hsn.com and they almost always have free shipping and some kind of code to use, so there’s that. So, if you’ve been on the fence about this palette for any reason and want to see a review from someone that was in your shoes, just keep reading!

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When you open up this palette, you will see 16 pans full of neutral goodness. My favorite kind of surprise. There are 14 smaller shades and 2 larger “highlight” shades. I will say that a beef I have with this palette (that Too Faced changed with the Semi Sweet) is that the names are not under the shadows, nor are they on the back. The shade names are on the plastic that comes with the palette and on the box, so if you throw those out good luck with trying to figure out the name of that rad gold shade chilling on your eyeballs.

Obviously, the packaging is adorable and very durable. I love that Too Faced uses mostly tin packaging for their eye palettes because it does make these very travel friendly. This would make for a lovely travel companion that’s pretty compact and and packed with lots of color options.

What caught my eye with this palette over the Semi sweet is the variety of cool, warm, and neutral tones in this palette. There’s a purple that makes me super happy (purple is a lovely shade for those with green eyes) and that dark reddish brown shade (cherry cordial) was just screaming my name.

I will say that there are a lot of darker shades in this palette. It’s the perfect neutral palette for those that love smoky eyes, and I am one of those people. I will wear a dark smoky eye to the grocery store, I’m not afraid. I mean, don’t we all have those days where we sit down and think “I’ll wear a natural look today” and somehow end up with a smoky eye?

Anyway, now to the swatches. I did swatch these over the Hard Candy eye primer because neutrals are a bit hard to swatch on the arm at times.

too faced chocolate bar

Swatches from Left to Right:

Gilded Ganache- dark brown with some gold shimmer.

White Chocolate- warm matte beige “highlight” shade

Milk Chocolate- medium-toned, warm matte brown shade

Black Forest Truffle- deep brown with a bit of burgundy undertones and some bronze sparkle

Triple Fudge- deep matte dark brown

Salted Caramel- warm toned medium orangey brown shade

Marzipan- frosted peach shade that looks a little metallic when applied

Semi-Sweet- medium dark brown

Strawberry Bon Bon- matte cool toned pink

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Candied Violet- cool toned smokey violet shade

Amaretto- frosty dark brown with some red undertones

Hazelnut- darker bronzey golden shade

Creme Brulee- metallic gold

Haute Chocolate- frosty chocolate brown

Cherry Cordial- warm toned reddish brown with a hint of sparkle

Champagne Truffle- shimmery “highlight” shade that’s white with a hint of pink

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How did they apply? For the most part, these shadows apply and blend very well. A couple of the shades like Candied Violet and Black Forest Truffle have a bit of fallout, but it wasn’t too annoying in my opinion. The only fail in my book was strawberry bon bon. On me, it applied so chalky looking and just didn’t look right to me. Maybe it’s my loathe of baby pink eyeshadow talking here? No idea, but that was really the only shade that I felt didn’t apply well. The shades with sparkle also feel a bit dry and powdery when swatched, but they do end up blending out nicely on the lid. I feel the shimmery shades have a bit more fallout and are powdery because most of them are matte based shadows with shimmer added to them, rather than added with them if that makes sense. The metallic and frosty shades apply like butter though.

Yeah, but will my eyeballs smell like chocolate all day? I wish, but sadly the smell leaves after you apply them. Or maybe it doesn’t…I can’t really sniff my eyeballs. I have a lot of talents, but that is not one of them.

Do I need so many browns in one palette? Yes and no. I will say there are a lot of brown shades, but there is a pretty good mixture of warm and cool toned browns and a few that can lean either way. It’s really just a personal preference.

How do I keep from munching on this palette? A lot of willpower and a few eyeshadow brushes. Take it out on your eye lids and give yourself a killer smokey eye just in spite.

Is this palette worthy of being in my collection? In my opinion, yes. I honestly like the color selection and quality better than a lot of other neutral palettes floating around. I love that this one comes with a violet, gold, and a peachy shade so that you can really amp it up or tone a look down while remaining glamorous if wanted. I like that the two lightest shades are also the biggest, because those tend to be used the most. At $49 with 16 shadows that’s a little over $3 a shadow, and that in itself is a great deal!

I have read that there are a few “repeat” shades from past collections that resemble those in this palette, but I can safely say that after looking at my Natural Eyes and Matte Natural Eyes palettes there are no repeats in those, unless you consider “White Chocolate” to be eerily close to “Heaven,” but almost every neutral palette these days has a nude-beige highlight shade of some sort. This palette does lack a true black shade, so if I’m wanting a classic smokey eye I have to pull from another palette, but that’s also fairly typical of Too Faced. It’s not a deal breaker for me considering I have about a lifetime’s worth of black shadows in my collection.

I hope you all found this review to be helpful in some way, or at least entertaining. Maybe you just liked my cliche pictures and now you’re wanting chocolate 😉 ha!

As always, thanks for reading and if this is your first time visiting my blog, stay awhile! It’s free and fun.

Have a good day, lovelies.

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Swatch Saturday: La Girl Creme Lipsticks

/ Kayla Hutchison / Leave a comment

la girl luxury creme lipstick

Hey beauties,

I feel like I haven’t done a Swatch Saturday post in ages. Okay, maybe like two weeks, but I really love doing swatch posts! Especially when lipstick is involved. Well, if lipstick is involved, I’m probably down. Today I’m going to be swatching 4 lipsticks that I don’t believe I have talked much about, and that’s the LA Girl creme lipsticks.

Everyone has been so obsessed with liquid and matte lipsticks (myself included) that I wanted to look in my collection and pull out some creamy lipsticks. Matte lipsticks aren’t for everyone, and even though I adore a great matte finish, I do like a nice moisturizing lipstick finish as well.

If you don’t know about LA Girl, they’re a brand that can be bought online at http://www.lagirlusa.com or can sometimes be found in select drugstores and Five Below stores. They are cruelty free, and very affordable.

They sell quite a few lipsticks, including liquid lipsticks, but I don’t see much on their Luxury Creme lipstick line. So, I’m going to swatch and talk about the 4 I have in my collection.

There are 24 shades in all that range from light nudes, red, and a black. I do love the range that LA Girl has in these lipsticks and I feel there is something for just about everyone.

Price: $4

Consistency: These are very creamy and hydrating.

Application: I personally like to apply these straight on the lips and then take a lip brush to evenly apply it the rest of the way. These pair best with lip liners because they are very creamy and therefore a bit slippery. I find that liners help my lipstick to “stick” and not get on my teeth as much. That and liners prevent the weird feathering thing that can happen with non-matte lipsticks.

Finish: As I’ve said possibly a million times, these are not matte, but they’re not too super glossy either. I like that about them. They’re kind of a happy medium, in my opinion.

Pigmentation: With all of the ones I swatched for this post I had no problems with the pigmentation. They went on smoothly and with no patchiness.

Packaging: I’m not a fan of the packaging. The packaging is a bit cheap (okay, very cheap) and a little flimsy. However, I will say that because the product inside is so good I can forgive cheap packaging. I can tell that LA Girl kind of sacrificed nice packaging for a great lipstick, and that’s okay in my book. I can respect that. If you’re a packaging snob (no judgement here, I am myself at times) then the packaging may bug you a bit too much with these.

Staying Power: Because these have a creamy texture and finish, you’re probably gonna have to reapply them throughout the day, especially if you eat and drink with it on.

 Smell: I found that these don’t really have a smell, which is fine in my book.

Worth a try? In my opinion, yes. I really like LA Girl as a brand, and I think these are nice lipsticks to try out if you want to try pinks or reds, but don’t want to drop a ton of money on a higher end brand. The only things that bug me with these are the packaging because I end up getting lipstick all over the tube every time I apply one. That and if you rip the little sticker off completely you suddenly don’t know the name of the lipstick you’re putting on. That’s also annoying. Other than that, I really love the way these feel on the lips. Because there is shea butter and vitamin e in them they are very hydrating. Perfect to throw in your purse on a nice Spring or Summer day.

Swatches:

la girl amour

Amour: A very “nude” lipstick that looks almost brown on my skin tone. I did conceal my lips before these swatches so I could show you all the true color. I really like this color. It pairs well with “nude truffle” lip liner by Nyx. I know that not everyone is into the brown-nude thing right now, but I am. It’s my way of being “bold” at times without wearing a bright or odd colored lipstick.

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Be Mine: A very brown lipstick with just a tinge of red in it. I know this color can be intimidating for people with fair skin, but I happen to love this color. It has a very “marsala” tone to it, and pairs well with a warm and matte eye look.

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Promise: This is probably my favorite out of the 4 I own. It looks a wee bit different on my lips than it does swatched on my arm. It’s more of a plummy-berry color that’s bold, but not overpowering.

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Last Night: This is a shade I would probably never purchase myself, but I actually got it in my Lip Monthly bag last month. I quite like it now that I’ve tried it on. It’s pretty intimidating inside of the tube, but on the lips it’s a nice deep pink color. Still bright, but wearable if you’re afraid of pinks like I am.

Arm Swatches:

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From the wrist down: Last Night, Promise, Be Mine, Armour

That’s it for today’s swatch Saturday post 🙂

Let me know if you all like this style/set up for lip swatches, and feel free to request lip swatches!

As always, thanks for reading, and if you’re new here I hope you decide to follow me or sign up for emails. It’s free and stuff.

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Wet n Wild Lunch in Sao Paulo Palette

/ Kayla Hutchison / 9 Comments

wet n wild lunch in sao paulo

Hey lovelies,

So, I was trying to find the California Roll palette from the Silver Lake collection only to discover that most of the Walgreens in my area have started to take the displays down. I was a wee bit crushed. However, Kaily from Someday Sunny must have felt my pain states away and found one and is sending it to me! Seriously, that made my whole day.

The point of me mentioning that is because even though I couldn’t find anymore Silver Lake palettes, I did find a display with a new Limited Edition Wet n Wild palette!

If you’ve read my reviews on the Paris Runway and Milano palettes knows that I think the quality of these palettes are awesome for drugstore eyeshadow palettes. If you’re looking for a cruelty free and affordable palette, I do reccomend them.

With that being said, to avoid repeating myself I’m just going to share photos and swatches and my thoughts on how this compares to the other two.

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Price: $7.99, same as the others

Permanent? Nope, this is one of the limited edition items from Wet n Wild that will be popping up over Spring and into Summer. So, if you see it and want it, snag it.

Colors: This palette has a few very bright and colorful shades and some neutral shades. There are no matte shades in this one, so you may need to use some from other palettes if you’re like me and enjoy matte transition shades, but overall the colors are very pretty and I feel there’s a decent amount of diversity.

Quality: The quality is the same as the other two, in my opinion. Very easy to swatch, and the colors feel very nice. A few of the colors were very slightly powdery, but nothing too bad. I do feel that in terms of drugstore quality, these are awesome shadows.

This palette comes with the brush just like the other two did. It’s not my personal favorite brush, but it works if you’re in a pinch, or if you’re just starting out with makeup.

Swatches:

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These swatches are done with no primer underneath. The color payoff was really nice. The yellow-ish color I had to work a bit with, but I typically do with all lighter shades because my skin is so fair. I’m dying over that greenish-teal color though. I really want to play with that one.

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Overall thoughts: Ah, I’ve been sucked into the “limited edition” trap once more. However, this one I am very happy with, and I’m already planning out a possible “get ready with me” video using it! It’s probably obvious by now that Wet n Wild is one of my favorite drugstore brands.

I don’t know if I like this palette more than the Milano one, but I do like it more than the Paris Runway palette. I don’t like that it lacks mattes, but the pretty colors kind of make up for it I suppose. The closest thing to a matte is the teal shade, but even then it still has a bit of sparkle in it. However, if you did some blending you could probably blend the sparkle away. Only do that with shadows, don’t blend your real life sparkle away 😉

I do have some more limited edition goodies from Wet n Wild to review soon, so stayed tuned! If you’re new here, stay awhile if you want!

What are your thoughts on this palette?? Will you be picking it up?

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*I purchased this product with my own money, and all opinions in this post are my own.

Face of the Day: Warm Smokey Eye

/ Kayla Hutchison / Leave a comment

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Hey lovelies,

Time for a face of the day post 🙂
I’m trying to do these posts 1-2 times a week. I have fun with them, and I do seem to receive great feedback when I do them.

Anyway, today I’m having a typical “me” day. I sat down thinking I was going to do something simple and light and finished with a smokey eye. Oops.

I used a few colors from my Melt Cosmetics Dark Matter Stack and a few from my Kat Von D Shade + Light eye palette. I used “blurr” and “unseen” from the dark matter stack, and then used a few brown shades, the burgundy shade, and a little bit of black from the Shade Light.

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My face today is Nars All Day Luminous, and now that I have figured out how to make this work on my dry skin I absolutely adore it. It did take me a bit to figure out how to make it work on my skin though.

For contouring I laid down a cream contour with my Nyx wonder stick in “light” and set that with the cool brown shade in my Wet n Wild contour palette (mine is dulce de leche). For blush and highlight I went with the new Wet n Wild Silver Lake trio in “sunset junction.” I have a review of these coming up, but let me just say that I am obsessed with the highlighting shade in this trio so far. It is shimmery and slightly pink and flatters my skin tone…I would’ve paid the $4 just for that highlight. #truelove

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On my brows is the Ofra cosmetics “universal” eyebrow pencil set with Nyx’s tinted brow mascara in “black.” Yes, I know one of my brows is looking a bit odd…I’m trying to let them grow out a bit so I can reshape them. It’s driving me bonkers.

I put on a coat of a new (not in stores yet) mascara by Covergirl, and my lashes are Kiss lashes #11. My liner is my physicians formula eye booster in ultra black as usual, and my water line is Nyx Tres Jolie gel liner.

Bottom lash line is smoked out into an oblivion using the same colors on my top lid.

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Originally, I had gray lips and I didn’t like how it looked. So, I changed it to “Melted Chihuahua” by Too Faced. I didn’t want to get this color because the name freaks me out, but I swatched it in Ulta and needed it. I guess it’s okay since no chihuahuas were actually melted in the making of this lipstick.

Oh, and I have a new septum clicker 🙂 Yes, my baby loves to try and pull on it. Mom life.

That’s about it for today’s face of the day! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

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Face of the day: Revealed 2 Palette 

/ Kayla Hutchison / 4 Comments

  

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but the Coastal Scents Revealed 2 palette is one of my favorites. I love the mauve and browns in this palette…it’s just so perfect in every way! I also haven’t shown this palette any love in a bit because of all the new palettes I’ve added (oops) so today I’m showing this beauty some love! 

  

  

This is a really simple “mauve smokey eye” I did today using most of the matte shades in the palette. I have the deep mauve shade on the lid and the lighter pink shade as a transition shade. I put the chocolate brown shade in the crease to deepen the mauve shade a bit and then placed the reddish brown shade on the outter portion of my eye. I blended until my arm was gonna fall off with this look. 

 

I used my trusty physicians formula eye booster pen to create a wing and my lashes are Kara #43. 

On the lower lash line I blended the light and dark mauve shades together and placed the dark brown on the outer part. My waterline is Rimmel scandal eyes in “nude.”

On my face is Nyx blush in “taupe” to contour and I used my Pixi “subtly sunned” bronzer to warm up my face a bit (unusual for me, yes) 

Blush is colourpop “prenup” which is a really pretty mauve type of color and highlight is by physicians formula

Brows are an ofra brow pencil that came in my lip monthly bag this month. More info on it next week!

Lips are colourpop’s lippie stick and pencil in “brink” 

Everything was set with my urban decay all nighter spray.

Welp, that’s about it for today’s face of the day! I hope you all enjoyed!

  

February Empties with Mini Reviews

/ Kayla Hutchison / Leave a comment

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My trash basket is overflowing with goodies to talk about this month. Wanna go through my beauty related trash that will include mini reviews? Keep reading!

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Olay Daily Moisture Body Wash– This is a huge thing of body wash. It claims to have a whole thing of lotion per body wash container! I did enjoy this body wash. It has a very nice and fresh scent, and it’s common to find this brand on sale and very easy to find coupons. Other than it cleaned my butt, I don’t know what else to say about it.

Sexy Hair Soy Renewal Argan Oil– I found this while cleaning and realized I hadn’t used it up. I received this in an ipsy bag a decent amount of time ago. Don’t worry, I did the sniff test and it didn’t smell funky or anything so my hair didn’t crumble up and fall out or anything. I do like this oil and it made my hair shiny and soft. However, given the price tag on a full sized container I don’t think I will purchase it. I have drugstore items that make my hair feel just as soft and shiny.

Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Castile Soap– I bought a mini version of this to see how I would like it. I’ve always seen people using this soap to clean their brushes and sponges, so I figured I would give it a go. Oh my, this stuff will clean any kind of goop off your brushes without damaging them! I love it, and I’ve already bought a giant bottle of it! A little goes a long way, and it leaves my brushes feeling soft and they smell minty. New holy grail brush cleaner.

Lady Speed Stick Deodorant– Um, not too sure what I can really say about this, or why I decided to include it in this post. It smells nice and doesn’t leave weird white marks all over my clothes. And it’s cheap.

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Aussie 3 min miracle deep conditioner this is a product that I always seem to repurchase and use. It’s very inexpensive and very effective, or at least for my hair it is. My hair is very thick and coarse and I like conditioners that weigh it down a bit without making it greasy. This conditioner does just that for me, and I use it 1-2 times a week. I go through them fairly quickly though because my hair is so long and thick, but at $3 a bottle I can’t go wrong with it.

Got2B Smooth Operator Leave in Conditioner I needed to use this stuff up so I could finally throw it away. I don’t hate it, but it’s wasn’t spectacular either. Is this even in stores anymore? Anyway, it did leave my ends feeling nice, but I have cheaper products now that do the same thing.


Suave Keratin Infusion Dry Shampoo Ah, another product I have about a million of because I got them for free once upon a time when I couponed. I do like the smell of this dry shampoo, but it left a weird feeling in my hair afterwards. I mostly used it up just to throw it away and start on my new bottles of rockaholic.

Burt’s Bees Intense Hydration Face Mask I typically only keep masks and cream face washes in my collection for 6 months at most…I don’t like the idea of bacteria collecting on masks. It’s a weird/personal thing. However, I did use up most of this and it was technically almost empty. It’s a great mask! Very hydrating and soothing. It didn’t break me out or irritate my skin, which is a plus considering my skin is very snobby and sensitive.

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Revlon Colorstay Lipstick Well, as you can tell this tube was pretty loved. I couldn’t find the name of the color anywhere on it…the sticker had fallen off. This color was pretty though despite how I recall not liking the stickiness of it after application. I needed to throw this out, and thought I would include it in this post…because why not?

Wet N Wild Lengthening Mascara I used this product up. It was super dry and needed to be retired and thrown into the makeup graveyard. This is a holy grail product for me, and it’s the only thing that works on my bottom lashes. It’s precise and doesn’t smudge and run everywhere. I’ve already repurchased another tube.

Purlisse Moisturizer I have like 3 more of these stored away because I get them in subscription boxes constantly. A full sized tube is about $55, so no I will probably never purchase a full sized one. However, I do like the way this feels on my face. It’s hydrating but light on the skin. I used it on days where my skin wasn’t as dry.

Loreal Youth Code Texture Perfecter Serum This is a newer holy grail product added to my skin routine. There’s still a bit of visible product left, but it won’t come out and I can’t get the bottle open. I use this serum mostly in the morning when I wake up, and it’s incredible! It leaves my skin feeling soft and ready for makeup. It’s also evened out the redness in my skin a lot. I’ve already repurchased. Many other serums like this one cost $50 or more, so this one is very affordable. However, if you have any other suggestion for serums that aren’t loreal…please let me know. I’m always down for cruelty free/vegan suggestions.

Those were my empties for the month! I tried to keep this post as short as possible…but I love to talk.
As always, thanks for stopping by and please follow me and stuff if you wish to see more of my posts and reviews!

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