Shop My Stash: Fall Blushes

September 14, 2015September 13, 2015 / Kayla Hutchison / 17 Comments

Hey lovelies,

I’ve been playing with this idea of sharing some things from my makeup stash as I go through things and switch products out, and what better time to start than when the seasons are about to change? So, here I am today with some of my Fall blushes that will be in my regular rotation for the next few months. Some are well loved, and some are yet to be loved.

Everyday Drugstore Faves:

Milani Rose Blush ‘Awakening Rose” I know, I know, I talk about these rose blushes so often. I can’t help it, they truly are amazing blushes for the price. That and the packaging is to die for. Awakening Rose is a really gorgeous everyday mauve shade, and I actually used this in my last tutorial. I use this shade very often and that pretty rose embossment is still there.

Nyx Powder Blush ‘Dusty Rose” this is a shade that will pair really well with all the trendy dusty rose shades this Fall. It’s more of a satin finish, so it’s not too matte on the skin, and I find the powder blushes last for a long time on my skin, personally. I do find these to be very pigmented and a bit powdery if you use a heavier hand, so make sure to lightly apply this. The Sedona Lace duo fiber brushes are my favorite for applying very pigmented blushes.

Wet n Wild “Mellow Wine” I’ve talked about these blushes before, and for $3 you really can’t go wrong with them. I wear “pearlescent pink” all Summer, and I switch them out for this on in the cooler months. This is another one to use a light hand with. I like to look like Snow White, so I know shades like this won’t be for everyone, especially my fellow pale friends.

Everyday Matte Blushes

City Color Cosmetics “Papaya” I’ve mentioned these on my blog as well. I picked up a bunch of these for $3 each at my local Five Below, and Papaya is probably my favorite shade of the bunch. It’s a beautiful matte mid-tone peach shade, which is something I gravitate towards for everyday looks, especially when I don’t know what other blush to wear. It pairs well with everything, much like the matte version of Milani’s “Luminoso.”

City Color Cosmetics “Blackberry” Okay, are we seeing a trend yet? I really really love deeper mauve shades. I feel they compliment my skin tone very well since I have natural cool undertones. Don’t let the name of this one scare you, it’s actually a really lovely deeper pink shade that pulls almost purple. If you don’t have a Five Below near you, I will leave my City Color coupon code at the end of the post. No pressure, there’s a lot of codes that float around so you don’t have to use mine. I did purchase these blushes myself though.

Go Bold or Go Home

Milani Baked Blush “Red Vino” Alright, this shade is not for the faint of heart. It will totally look stunning on darker skin tones, but I use this as my staple “Snow White” shade paired with just mascara and a red lippie. It makes me look flushed, and the gold in this gives a stunning sheen to my skin. It’s a shade that I don’t hear enough about, probably because it is so dark in color.

Kat Von D “Essex” I don’t know if these blushes are available anymore? I’m still going to mention it for anyone that still has these in their local Sephora. Yes, these are $25, but the packaging is beautiful and a little bit of this blush goes a long way. It’s a beautiful rose shade that I tend to wear almost everyday, if I’m being honest. This formula lasts so long on the skin as well, and I really hope these aren’t being discontinued forever.

ColourPop “Cheerio” This is a shade that I haven’t been able to play around with much. It’s another that looks really intimidating in the pan, but swatches lighter on the skin. It’s a marsala type of shade that has a satin finish. I really love this shade and can’t wait to play around with it more as the weather cools down!

That’s it for today’s little “shop my stash” entry. Let me know if you all like this type of post, and I will try to put something else together soon! I really need to go through my stash and show some things some love before I end up with 100 of everything. The joys of being a makeup enthusiast.

Have a good day, beauties.

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One Palette, Five Looks: Innerstellar Palette

June 3, 2015June 3, 2015 / Kayla Hutchison / 9 Comments

Hey lovelies,

I was tagged by the lovely Kaily at Someday Sunny quite some time ago to create 5 different looks using one palette. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to do this tag, I didn’t know what palette I wanted to use for a hot minute. I wanted to use something that I love and haven’t used as much lately, but is still available.

After much thought, I went with the Kat Von D Innerstellar palette. Why? Well, for one it’s one of my favorite palettes. The galaxy type colors inspire me in a big way, and I feel this palette is very versatile and has a great mix of mattes and shimmers. It’s also limited edition and with the release of Kat Von D’s summer collection coming up in July, I don’t know how much longer this palette will be available. So, I wanted to show how gorgeous it is in one dedicated post for those that might still be on the fence about it, or don’t use cool toned shadows often. If you’re unfamiliar with this palette, I will link my review with swatches and all of the names at the end of this post along with Kaily’s original post.

This palette is super cool toned. It is the coolest (officially my worst pun) but it is so gorgeous, so without further adieu, let’s move on to the 5 looks I did.

Look one: a simple daytime look.

Transition shade: Killing Moon Base and eyebrow shade: Lycan

Crease: Astrological

Inner corner shade: Dios

Lower Lash Line: Nude liner in the water line, Killing Moon and Astrological blended out

Lashes: Kiss #11

Lips: Nyx “Enamored” contour is actually “Vast” from the Innerstellar palette and blush is “prenup” by Colourpop.

Look two: a dramatic vampy look

Transition shade: Vast Lid shades: Moonshine on the entire lid and Night Crawler blended out on the outside

Water line is Urban Decay’s 24/7 liner in “Black Velvet” smoked out with Vast and 3am. Inner corner “flick” created with Night Crawler and a small angled brush and filled in with Moonshine. Lashes are Kara #WSP

Lips: Nyx Simply Vamp in “Temptress”

Blush is ‘LoveSong” by Kat Von D and highlight is Colourpop’s “Hippo”

Look three: Smokey eye with no winged liner

Transition shade: vast Lid shades: Darkstar and Lunacy

Used Urban Decay’s 24/7 liner in Black Velvet on the lash line and smoked it out with Night Crawler and applied Kiss #11 lashes. Brow bone is Lycan.

Lash line is Vast, Killing Moon, and Darkstar smoked out and blended together.

Contour is Vast from Innerstellar.

Blush is Colourpop’s “Prenup” and Face and inner corner highlight is Colourpop’s “Hippo”

Lips are Lasplash “Ghoulish”

Look four: galaxy inspired. This is probably my favorite look. I’m happy with how this one turned out.

Transition shade: Killing Moon

Lid Shades: 3am on outside and inside corners.

Middle of the lid: Dios and Moonshine together applied with my finger

Blended out the entire shape using Orion.

Water line liner is Bellapierre’s gel liner in “Ebony” and 3am, Killing Moon, and Orion are blended out on the lower lash line.

Lashes are Kara #43.

Lips are Kat Von D “Lovecraft”

Cheeks are Nyx’s blush in “Taupe” and Kat Von D’s blush in “Lovesong.”

Highlight is Elf’s baked highlight in “Moonlight Pearls”

Look five: Would it be a post by me if I didn’t add a look with a raccoon-esque feel and odd lip color? Probably not.

For this look I applied Maybelline’s color tattoo in “tough as taupe” on the outer and inner corners on the top lid, and messily ran it on the lower lash line as well. The key word for this look was “messy”

Transition/blending shade: Astrological

Outer/Inner corner shade: Night Crawler

Middle shade: Moonshine

Lower lash line: astrolgical and killing moon blending far down to create that killer raccoon smokey eye.

Brow shade: Lycan

Liner and lashes: Physicians formula eye booster pen, Kiss #11 lashes

Contour: Nyx blush in “taupe”

Blush: Wet n Wild “Pearlescent Pink”

Highlight: Elf “Moonlight Pearls:

Lips: Manic Panic’s “After Midnight” topped with Kat Von D’s “Poe.”

I know this look isn’t for everyone. I wanted to add a bit of my own pizazz in though.

Anyway, those are my five looks for this lovely and fun tag! I’m not going to tag anyone in particular, and here’s why…I think this is something everyone that has an abundance of eyeshadow palettes should do. This tag actually re-sparked my love for this palette, and I haven’t been able to put it down even after doing these looks! I actually want to do this with more palettes in my collection. It’s a fun challenge to create different looks with the same palette. It forced me to use different bases, techniques, and color combinations. I even learned that the shade “Vast” doubles as an amazing contour shade for paler skin tones. Seriously, if you own this palette, try it as a contour.

I hope you all enjoyed this post, because I had so much fun doing this.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you are all having wonderful days.

Kaily’s post:

http://www.kailybaute.com/2015/04/30/1-palette-5-looks-wet-n-wild-california-roll/

Innerstellar review and swatches:

https://lunafayebeauty.com/2015/01/13/review-and-swatches-kat-von-d-innerstellar-palette/

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Swatch Saturday: Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette

May 23, 2015May 22, 2015 / Kayla Hutchison / 13 Comments

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!

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.

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

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

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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Kat Von D Shade + Light Eye Palette

April 7, 2015April 7, 2015 / Kayla Hutchison / 9 Comments

Hey Beauties,

Today, I have a really exciting review! Well, exciting for me. I just picked this palette up, but I really couldn’t wait any longer to swatch and play around with it. That’s how happy I am about this release. If you’ve been here a bit you may have noticed my slight love over Kat Von D’s entire makeup line. I adore everything she comes out with. The packaging is always so edgy and sleek, and even the names of her products make my heart flutter at times.

It’s safe to say that her brand is probably my favorite makeup brand at Sephora. So, when she started showing sneak peaks of the Shade+Light Eye palette…I knew I needed it. It was love at first Instagram like. I’m a gal that loves mattes, neutrals, and grungy styled things, and this palette looked like it would deliver all of that and more. I also thought this palette would make a great companion to my Melt Cosmetics Dark Matter Stack and my Innerstellar Palette since I reach for those constantly, yet I always need shadows from elsewhere if I’m feeling elaborate.

I had seen people saying that the Sephora’s inside of JcPenney already had these palettes out before any other Sephoras, so of course I went to see for myself. I looked in the Kat Von D section and couldn’t find it and looked elsewhere and started to lose hope, and then there she was. Waiting for me.

Alright, enough of my palette love story, I’m sure you all have come here for the review. This palette is marketed as the “companion” to the Shade Light Contour Palette. I don’t own that, but that’s a different rant for a different day.

This palette is $46 (as are all of her eye palettes) and has 12 shadows in all. Kat Von D is exclusive to Sephora and Sephora.com. As far as I know, this palette will be permanent since the contour palette is as well.

The packaging is the standard thick cardboard. I admit I am not too fond of the cardboard, but I know that in order to keep the palletes under $50 it may be needed. It’s still very thick and dense though, and the black and gold lettering on the front is so sexy. Yes, I just called this palette sexy.

There are 12 shadows in all. 3 very large “base” shadows that are 2.3 grams each and 9 smaller shadows that are 1.1 grams each. So, there’s quite a bit of product in this palette.

The way this palette works is it’s divided into “quads.” The first quad is the neutral quad, and consists of the first base shadow and the 3 shadows beneath it. The second quad is the cool toned quad, and the third is the warm toned quad. There was a little booklet that came with the palette explaining the quads and how to use the shadows to lift the eyes and such, and I thought that was neat.

However, I don’t play by the rules and I like to play and mix all the colors. From looking and swatching these colors, I don’t think any colors are too warm or too cool to mix and match quads, and I like that. I like that I can comfortably color outside the quadrants and still create great looks.

Update: I actually used 2 shades from the warm quad this morning and a few from the neutral quad and the look turned out fantastic! I think I may sit down and actually film it 😉

I also love the balance of light and dark shades in this palette. Often I see palettes have too many brown or almost black shades and 1-2 light shades and it’s not a great variety. There’s a variety of transition, highlight, base, and contouring shades in this palette. There’s also a matte black, but that’s in every single one of Kat Von D’s palettes. I think I’m set on black shadow for life at this point.

Swatches:

left to right:
Ludwin, Lazarus, Laetus

Latinus, Sytry, Succubus

Liberatus, Shax, Saleos

Lucius, Solas, Samael

Pigmentation: These are very pigmented. The swatches I did above were done with no primer…and the lighter shades even showed up on my ghostly pale skin. That’s right, rest assured that these are very pigmented. I have a problem with getting too excited and just digging my brush right into shadows…probably not the best choice with these. A little will go a very long way. I will say that I was under the assumption that every shade in this palette was matte, but Samael (the far end light shade) is not. It’s actually a little pearlized, but that’s okay. I think that shade would be the one to add a bit of dimension to any look if you’re not about a full matte look.

Texture: These are very soft and buttery. The shade “liberatus” from the cool quad actually had a bit of fallout when I was playing with this palette, but that was the only one that did. So, be careful and maybe slowly build up with that shade because I went kinda ham on it and had brown shadow all over my face afterwards. The other shades did not have any fallout though.

Overall thoughts: Do I even need to say it? I love this palette. I think this will be an amazing partner to my other grungier palettes, and will be great on it’s own. I feel this palette is definetely worth the price given the amount of product as well. I skipped out on the Too Faced matte palette to snag this one, and I am glad I did. I really love the packaging and names of the shadows. Gah, I just love it.

As always, thank you for reading my review! I hope you all found something helpful in this. I can’t wait to play with this palette more! I’m sure I will be mentioning it often in the upcoming weeks.

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Lorac Skinny Nude Palette

April 4, 2015April 4, 2015 / Kayla Hutchison / 1 Comment

Hello, today I have a swatch post with review! I’ve had this palette for awhile now, and I’ve been meaning to review it and just kind of…forgot. I get distracted easily, mostly by lipstick. I feel bad that I forgot because this is a really cute little palette! If you’re interested, just keep reading!

So, this is my second every Lorac product ever. I bought the Vintage Vixen palette on Black Friday, and that palette is my baby. I keep that little gem in my “everyday” acrylic case so that it’s by my side at times that I’m sitting down doing my makeup.

I got an email saying that Hautelook was having a sale on Lorac products again, so I made sure to be at my computer when the sale started because I had my eyes on this palette. I went to go put it in my cart and got the dreaded “on hold” message and my heart stopped. I thought I had missed out on the one thing I wanted, but I was able to add it into my cart about 5 minutes later.

Hautelook really knows how to play with my emotions during makeup sales.

Anyway, this palette is so cute and compact. It comes in a nude shaded snakeskin case, and is the perfect size for traveling. There is a mixture of 7 shimmer and matte shades in this palette, and that in general makes my heart swell. I love a palette with a good balance between shimmer and mattes.

Personally, I feel that any smaller palette meant to travel needs a few matte shades and a few “bam” shades to take a look from day time to night time. It doesn’t take a ton of shades in a palette to achieve that, it’s just about finding the right shades that truly compliment each other in multiple ways.

This little Lorac palette definetely delivers in that area. This is a very warm toned palette, so if warm tones aren’t your thing then you may want to steer clear.

Pigmentation: These shadows are very pigmented, that was one of the first things I noticed when I swatched them on my arm. They all applied very smooth, and they are super buttery and creamy. Even the lightest matte shade showed up on my arm, and that rarely happens when I swatch cream shades on my skin. Color me impressed.

Blendability: Pretty sure that word doesn’t exist, but we’re going to use it anyway today. These blend beautifully! I’m not too surprised after using the Vintage Vixen palette though. One of the reasons why I reach for that palette so often is because even though it’s all matte shades, all of the shades still blend like a dream. That and Lorac shadows are always constantly raved about on blogs and on youtube. It’s one brand that I understand why people are always hyping up in terms of shadows. These are very high quality.

Versatility: This palette can create a great range of looks! From matte day time looks to shimmery glamorous looks, the colors are there. I live for that camel brown and warm light brown shade in the palette. So damn gorgeous. I’m a neutral kind of person, whether it’s warm or cool tones, and this palette just makes my neutral little heart so happy.

Overall thoughts: I probably gave this away throughout the post, but I love this palette. It’s very high quality and the shadows are incredible. There is a great mixture of matte and shimmer shades to create both day time and night time looks, and the packaging makes it easy to travel with. I got this on sale off Hautelook for $15, and I know they’ve been on there several times before when Lorac was the featured brand. So, if you’re drooling over this pretty arrangement of eyeball colors, then definitely snag one during their next sale!

As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you are all having wonderful days!

If you’re new here, please stick around if you wish to see more reviews and makeup fun!

Meet Matt(e) Nude

March 17, 2015March 17, 2015 / Kayla Hutchison / 6 Comments

Hello lovelies,

Today I want you all to Meet Matt(e) Nude! I’m such a sucker for a great nude palette, and if it’s matte there’s about a 85% chance that I will eventually own it. I have wanted this palette for so long, and I finally scored one awhile back when Hautelook when they had The Balm on there in February.

The Balm is probably one of my top 5 favorite higher end brands. Their packaging is always so adorable and vintage, yet it has the slightly sexual undertone with the names etc. much like Too Faced. If I had to describe myself with a makeup brand, it could be this one.

Anyway, as you can see above, the packaging of this palette is so cute, yet very chic. It’s small and compact, and I feel this palette would be great for traveling.

This is the inside of the palette, and please just take in it’s glory for a second. It’s so rare that I find a nude palette this perfect.

Things that I personally look for in matte palettes:
-a light transition shade
-a white/ivory shade for daytime looks
-a good range of light/medium toned shades for daytime looks
-at least a few darker shades to create smokey eyes and/or take a look from day to night easily

Matt(e) did not fail to deliver in any of the above aspects. That peachy toned shade is the perfect transition shade. I die over it. This palette does not have a black, but the darker shades do work well together. Honestly, I like having a few neutral palettes that don’t have a black shadow.

Second thing I noticed about this palette is the size of the shadows (hence the size matt(e)rs line on the front). They are large pans, so this palette is well worth your investment if you’re looking for a palette that you can use everyday.

But what about the actual shadows? Matt(e) is so dreamy!

Top Row: Matt Johnson, Matt Garcia, Matt Malloy
Bottom Row: Matt Rosen, Matt Wood, Matt Singh
*swatches done with no primer underneath

Left to right: Matt Abdul, Matt Lombardi, Matt Hung

Pigmentation:

Decent, given that they are matte shadows and by default can be a bit patchy and dry looking when swatched.

How they blend:
These blend very well! I have dry eyelids, and I didn’t find that these looked patchy on my eyes. The brush didn’t drag when I blended the colors out.
Tip: If you are ever having trouble blending matte shadows because you have dry lids, try putting a translucent powder on top of your primer before applying shadow. This helps to blend shadows easier.

My favorite shades: I’m pretty obsessed with Matt Garcia, Matt Rosen, Matt Singh, and Matt Lombardi. I use these shadows to create so many simple, yet elegant everyday looks when I’m on the go. Matt Singh and Matt Lombardi are truly everything I look for in transition shades…and I mean look at Rosen and Garcia. They are so warm and absolutely gorgeous. I can’t get enough of them.

Overall thoughts: This palette was worth the wait. It is everything I expected and more. I know this palette has been out for awhile, but I wanted to do this review anyway since Hautelook has The Balm on sale a few times a year on their site. I feel that this palette can be used alone and in conjunction with other shades. There’s such a great variety of shades that all work harmoniously together, and the packaging is so retro and adorable. Not to mention, there’s a decent sized mirror in it so that’s a bonus!

As always, thank you for stopping by and reading this rambling, and I hope you are all having wonderful days.

First Impression: Nars Luminous Weightless Foundation & Creamy Radiant Concealer

February 25, 2015 / Kayla Hutchison / 5 Comments

Okay, so I am so sorry for the ridiculously long title. Is it just me, or does the person that comes up with the names for Nars products get way too much joy over creating long title names? I imagine whomever it is sitting in a chair twirling around saying, “Muahaha! Now you’re all tongue tied and the titles to your reviews are OBNOXIOUSLY LONG!”

Anyway, I decided that I needed to do a bit of an overhaul of sorts with my foundations and concealers. I haven’t been happy with many of them in awhile, or at least not as happy as I should be. So, today I am doing a bit of a 2 in 1 review deal since I ordered both of these around the same time.

When I saw that Nars had a new “luminous” foundation my heart fluttered. I knew I needed it. Nars typically has a very great shade range, and has a few that are snowflake complexion friendly.
Tip: on their site there’s actually a “foundation matcher” where you can type in the current foundation that you use, and it will match you with one of theirs. I typed in Kat Von D’s Tattoo Lock it Foundation in “Light 42” and was matched with “Mont Blanc.” There is actually a lighter shade than that called “Siberia” but I didn’t go with that one because from what I saw from swatches, it’s literally white and yellow looking and I was afraid that it would appear chalky on my skin.

So, I went with Mont Blanc in the foundation. I ordered “Chantilly” in the concealer because about every pale princess blogger I follow owns it, and I decided I needed to own it. Youtube made me do it.

Price: I ordered both from Nordstrom.com because I am not too weird about collecting points from Sephora, and the foundation was $48 and concealer $30, but I got 6% back on ebates…which was nice because I think my bank account squawked at me.

So, yes, this is very much a high end product. One of my resolutions for this year though was to treat myself to a few more luxury and high end products to avoid constantly buying cheap things that I don’t end up using. For me, spending a bit more on skin products really helps me to actually use them.

Application: Foundation this foundation is very liquidy, and you do have to shake it up quite a bit before using it. It also dries pretty fast, so keep in mind that you do have to work a bit quickly with it to apply it evenly before it starts drying. I found that this applied best with a damp beauty sponge (I use the real techniques miracle complexion sponge) and by dotting it all over my face before blending. Because it dries so quickly, I felt like if I had tried to use a brush it would’ve created streaks. However, if you do use a brush one tip may be to spritz your brush a bit with water or setting spray.

Concealer This concealer is litereally the creamiest concealer I have ever used. Whether I use my fingers to tap it on or a damp beauty blender, it applies beautifully. I now see why this concealer is such a cult favorite.

Color Match Foundation: This shade is actually pretty spot on for me. “Mont Blanc” is described on the site as a fair shade with pink undertones, just like how Kat Von D’s “Light 42” is described. Pink undertoned foundation is something I struggle with so much to find, since so many are either yellow or beige toned.

Excuse my “mom” makeup!

Concealer: I purchased “chantilly” to use as a brightening and highlighting shade, and it’s literally the only concealer I have ever tried that is a shade lighter than my skin. I don’t have to play makeup chemist and mix things, which is nice. Perfect color for me.

How it settled Foudnation: Ah, this is something that’s a big deal for me because I often run into with foundations that many will apply beautifully and once they settle they look like shit. However, this one actually looked nice on me after it settled. I was so nervous after I ordered it because a few bloggers had complained about it sticking to dry spots and making pores look large, but I had that in mind ahead of time and did my “your skin is super shitty and dry today” prep routine that I find myself doing often anyway in the winter time. I used a hydrating primer and setting spray and it looked great even after it settled for a few hours!

Concealer: This didn’t settle into my fine lines at all underneath my eyes. It didn’t cling to dry patches. I have natural fine lines under my eyes and concealers tend to crease thanks to my eye shape, but this concealer didn’t crease at all. Can you tell I’m in love with it yet??

Longevity Foundation: This claims to be an all day foundation, so I put it to the test. I applied it at about 10 am and wore it until around 9 pm, which is a typical day for me. It did stay put the entire day, however at about 7 pm I did notice it clinging to dry patches really bad around my nose. That’s something that happens with every foundation I have ever tried though. My nose is a problem area thanks to eczema. I also didn’t powder or spray my face with anything to truly test the foundation, so that’s something to keep in mind.

Concealer: This concealer didn’t seem to fade or look weird after a long period of time. The color stayed true, and even after a long period of time my undereyes still looked bright and happy.

Overall: I love both of these products! So far, I am extremely happy with this purchase, despite how expensive they are. I haven’t had to not mix my manic panic foundation in anything in so long, which is so nice. The fact that these products actually cut time out of my routine is awesome for me because I didn’t have to mix things to get a nice color match.
Even if you’re still not sure about the foundation, try the concealer. Not even kidding, I wish I had bought it sooner and just given in. It’s incredible.

As usual, thanks for reading and I hope that you all found this review helpful or just pleasant to read.
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Review and Swatches: Kat Von D Innerstellar Palette

January 13, 2015January 13, 2015 / Kayla Hutchison / 7 Comments

As I have said a few times on my blog before, Kat Von D makes some damn great makeup. Expensive, but high quality and very unique. When my boyfriend told me he bought me the Innerstellar (limited edition palette fyi) palette I nearly fainted and squealed. I own some lip products and a foundation by Kat Von D, but I do not own any of her eyeshadow palettes. Sad, I know.

So, this review is very exciting for me. I’m going to quit rambling though and get to the point.

First, this palette is a Sephora exclusive and can be bought on sephora.com or it’s in stores.
It’s $46, so it is high end, but still a few bucks cheaper than the Urban Decay palettes.
This is a cool toned palette. If cool tones do not flatter you or are not your thing, this palette might not be for you.

I wear a lot of cool toned lipsticks and blushes since I am extremely pale and my skin undertones are naturally pink rather than beige. So, cool tones flatter my eyes and skin a great deal. Don’t get me wrong, I love warmer toned eyeshadows (also apparent on my blog) but I’ve been wanting something different since everyone seems to be on this warm tone kick right now. Personally, I needed to switch it up a bit.

The packaging is a thick black cardboard material with a pretty big mirror on the inside, which I also like. It’s pretty big, but I feel it is still a very travel friendly palette. The reason why it’s a bit bigger is because the 3 bigger eyeshadows are 2.3 grams and the 9 smaller shadows are 1.1 grams. That’s a pretty decent amount of product, in my opinion.

There are 3 bigger shades at the top, and I am assuming they’re bigger than the rest because these are typical “staple” shades that are used often universally. Whether as a base or as a highlight, these 3 shades are the ones many reach for to create many different looks. Because let’s be real, how many of us have hit pan very quickly in our Naked palettes with those smooth and precious little matte highlighting shades and thought, “Why?? I need you!”

Something else I look for in a palette is “is this thing versatile?” Meaning, can I create entire looks using only this palette? That’s actually a problem with me regarding most palettes. Many palettes lack something whether it’s a strong set of mattes, a transition shade, or the perfect highlighting shade or lack a matte black to take a look from daytime glam to “hey baby look at me.”

I have found that this palette passes the versatility test for me! There’s a transition shade, perfect highlighting shades, crease shades, a matte black, and little pops of color to create a ton of different and beautiful looks. I have tried a few things already with this palette, and I will show a few looks at the end of this post.

As for quality and pigmentation, Kat Von D brought her A game. I speak about her like we’re bff’s (I wish) but I’m being totally honest, you all. This palette is beautiful and the pigmentation is intense with every color. The shadows themselves are very smooth and buttery, and it doesn’t take a lot on your brush to get great results from the product. Every swatch I have done is without primer so you all can get a good idea of what the shadows look like.
As usual, I am sorry the lighter shades don’t show up very well on my moon tanned skin. Just take my word that they are pigmented. 😉

These are the 3 bigger shades from the wrist down: Lycan (matte white), Vast (satin taupe), Gravitron (shimmery light pink)

First 5 shades from the bottom up: Killing Moon (matte plum beige), Moonshine (shimmery gray), 3 am (dark purple), Orion (shimmery lavender), Darkstar (darker gunmetal gray)

Last 4 shades from bottom up: Astrological (matte darker brown), Lunacy (satin taupe), Dios (very shimmery silver shade), Night Crawler (matte black)

Can we just take a second to admire the unique names Kat Von D has for everything? I love them. I know they weird some people out, but the eternal gothish-punk and horror fan in me loves it.

Would I recommend this palette to others? Absolutely. If you’re going back and forth between palettes if you’re still holding on to gift cards, my pick would be this one. Not just because it’s a great quality palette, but it’s also limited edition. I don’t always get my hands on limited edition makeup items very often, so I do cherish this one quite a bit.

Is it okay to call palettes babies? This is currently my baby.

Okay, I had my weird moment and now to show a few looks I have done using this palette and this palette alone.

Anyone else own this palette and love it? Show me your looks or link me to your reviews!

Luna Faye Beauty

Reviews, tutorials, and snarky remarks.

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Review and Swatches: Kat Von D Innerstellar Palette