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.

If you’re new to my blog, please stick around if you want!

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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!

Review and Swatches: Benefit Blush Palette

November 6, 2014 / Kayla Hutchison / 1 Comment

Before I begin this post, I would like to point out that the name of my blog has changed. I have been wanting to change it for a bit to reflect both of my daughters, Harmony and Piper. Luna is (one) of Piper’s middle names and Faye is (one) of Harmony’s middle names, in case anyone was curious about how Luna Faye is connected to them. Thanks for reading and stopping by!

Ah, the holidays are upon us which means food, family…and holiday makeup collections. I am a sucker for the cute packaging and smaller product sizes that come out this time of the year. However, I am actively trying to avoid buying everything, so I told myself I would only get what I felt was worth the money and would be something I would use.

Telling myself that alone helped me to really research the things I wanted and figure out what I was going to buy. My birthday is November 15, so I am currently using the “it’s almost my birthday!” excuse to buy a few things that I have had my eyes on for a bit. The first thing on my list was the Benefit Cheeky Sweet Spot palette. I have always heard so many amazing things about the Hoola bronzer, but I could never justify it to myself to spend $28 on just a bronzer.

This palette is $36, and comes with 5 blushes, a bronzer, and a small cream highlighter. Considering one blush/bronzer from Benefit costs $28…I was sold solely on that. The products are not full sized, of course, but from what I have read Benefit’s blushes and bronzers tend to last quite awhile.

This is what the packaging looks like. It’s extremely Christmas-y. I can’t say I am too excited about the packaging, but the inside of the packaging makes up for it. The packaging itself is kind of bulky and reminds me of the corny candy tins from drugstores, but I was willing to try and overlook that. Side note: the little roof thing does come off for easier storage.

Look at that beauty. I have read that the “bellabomba” shade in this set was discontinued, so I am assuming that if this was a shade that you wanted in the past this may be your last chance to get it. I’ve also read that these can be depotted and put into a z palette by taking them out of the foam. I may wait and see if someone makes a video about it because I do not want to risk messing anything up, personally. There’s also a clear plastic screen that came with the set to show the names of colors so that you know the colors even after the stamp on the product wears off. I would keep the plastic handy if you feel you need to know the names after they wear off.

Swatches from bottom to top:

Dandelion, Bellabomba, Sugar Bomb, Hoola, Coralista, and the shade swatched underneath everything is Rockateur. I tried to make a decent swatch of the “watts up” cream highlighter, but I am so pale that it doesn’t look like anything more than a sparkle on my skin. However, there are tons of swatches throughout the internet of this product. It’s loved by many.
I have a feeling that I am going to be using Dandelion, Hoola, and Rockateur often. I love all of the colors though. There’s not a shade in the set that I can’t see myself using.
I totally feel like this holiday set is worth the $36 despite the minor packaging problems. What are some holiday sets that you have on your wish lists this year?