I recently placed an order with Sephora to use my $15 gift credit they give out and picked up this palette- it was only $6 so how could I pass it up? In my experience Sephora shadows aren't the best quality so I was a little wary about it. I've purchased the Sephora Blockbuster before only to be massively disappointed. I sat down the other night and played with all of the shadows to see how they worked. All of these were done over MAC Bare Study Paint Pot. I've labelled them 1-8 for easy reference.

Color descriptions:

1- light pink with red glitter

2-medium taupe brown shimmer

3-dark matte brown

4-dark olive green with silver glitter

5-light silver- white shimmer

6-gray stormy silver shimmer

7-black with silver glitter

8-purple with slight blue shimmer

And when I say silver glitter I mean big chunky no-point-for-it glitter. All it does is make the palette look cheap.

Look 1:
Using 2, 3 and 5 (highlight). This was the first look I did and was very happy with the pigmentation. The shadows I used here all had a great texture and pigmentation, no troubles here. I was very nicely surprised to find that the matte brown was not chalky at all and easy to blend! In fact I was very happy! But can the whole palette be this good for $6?

Look 2:
Using 1, 5 (highlight), 7 and 8. Ignore that crazy eyelash, I don't know what that is about. I knew this palette couldn't keep it up. 1 barely showed up at all even when applied heavily, invisible eyeshadow! 8 barely showed up too, I had to pound it on just to get the color you see on the lid. 7 was alright, nothing special and not the easiest black that I've worked with.

Look 3:
Using 4, 5 and 6. As a highlight 5 works alright but as a lid color it was a little too sheer, 5 was a nice silver but the pigment was so-so and it needed a little bit of work. 6 I was expecting to be darker, on the lid it turned a silver-green and also needed packed on.

Conclusions-

The palette was only $6 but I have palettes I've purchased for less from Wet N Wild and NYC that are much higher quality. The mirror in the palette is also weird- it seems to be warped or something so I find it unusable. I will likely only use 3 shades in this palette, which means I likely will never reach for it. I would say pass on this one.

I know I literally just posted a smoky silver eye a few days ago but have another!

Products used:

MAC painterly paint pot

Fyrinnae Marshmallow Puffs (highlight)

Milani Runway eyes palette (shadows 2,3 and 6)

Maybelline ultra liner waterproof

Lash blast mascara

Sally Hansen Diamond 12 hour lip treatment in Princess

EOTD? Okay not really, but I'm not sure what else to call it?

Sometimes when I'm bored I like to play with my makeup- experiment with different ways of shading, colors, contouring, shapes and all that good stuff. Typically I don't intend to leave the house with this makeup on and I usually end up doing two different things on each side of my face. Today's post is one of those, I'll post the other half tomorrow but today I offer you this:

Products Used:

MAC Painterly Paint Pot

Wet n Wild Brulee eyeshadow (highlight)

Milani Melange marbleized shadow (inner corner- swatches coming soon)

Fyrinnae Shrouded in Gold (middle lid- I think this may be DC?)

Fyrinnae Polar Bear- (outer corner)

Maybelline ultra liner waterproof

Lash blast mascara

Covergirl natureluxe liquid silk foundation in alabastar

Mary Kay mineral powder foundation in Ivory 1

NYC Mosaic bronzing powder in Heart of Gold

Sally Hansen Diamond 12 Hour lip treatment in Princess (sticky mess)

I realized it had been a while since I had worn a simple silver smoky eye. I recently have been trying more drug store products and the only thing in this entire FOTD that isn't drug store is my primer- MAC Painterly Paint Pot.

Products used:

MAC Painterly paint pot

Maybelline Cool Effects pencil in Black Frost *read below for thoughts*

Milani Runway eyes palette in Backstage Basics

L'Oreal waterproof liquid liner

Cover Girl Lash Blast mascara

Milani Brow Fix kit in light (my new love)

Almay tlc foundation in ivory 01

L'oreal Bare Naturale in Nude Beige (which in RL was ridiculous orange on me)

NYC Color Wheel mosaic face powder in Pink Cheek Glow

Revlon Nude Attitude lipstick

Milani clear gloss that I can't remember the name of

*I decided to give these another try despite harsh memories of greasy mess all over my lids from the first time I used on back when I was what? 16? I have to say I was happier with this than I thought I would be.

It doesn't have as harsh a tingling cooling effect as I remember and it managed to not crease after a couple of hours wear without a base when I tested it- so I was pretty impressed. I wore it as a base color to amplify my black shadow. When I got home 10 hours later from my errands and looked in the mirror it hadn't creased. It had however bled above the crease (and by bled I mean like when pencil liner does this and creates a weird arch over your crease, I've been trying to think of an easier way to explain this- do you gals know what I mean?) but it was easy to smudge with just light strokes of my fingertip to blend it. I'll fill you in as I test these more but I just wanted to put my thought on them down!

I was asked by a friend to do makeup for her and a few other people and two of the costumes were a devil and gypsy. I decided to play around and do a "practice" run and this is what I came up with.

Devil...

She suggested flames but I find things like that hard to work into something flattering so I took the idea and played with it. When I did her actual makeup I brought the point up to almost her brow and a little bit sharper. I also added red glitter lightly to the outer corner. And false lashes of course! For this I used my Manly 120 palette.

Gypsy...

I went with a simple smoky eye and for that extra Halloween glam I added some holo glitter. And once again, of course fake lashes! For this I used some Fyrinnae shades and the glitter is from Fantasy Makers.

For both the above picture of the pots and the swatches below:

From L-R and Top to Bottom- Danse Macabre (vibrant grass green with gold shimmer -free sample), Calavera Cupcakes (silver-purple), Eternal Innocence (peacock teal-green), La Noche and (deep yet bright midnight blue) Catrina Cabaret (dusty teal with purple shimmer)

I am blown away by how gorgeous these are. Such vibrant colors! I have a lot of Fyrinnae shadows but these have potential to become favorites (I'm looking at you La Noche and Calvera Cupcakes). And look below at the cute little sugar skulls on the labels, it's the little things that make me happy and this is one of them.

And because I couldn't resist playing when I got them, here is my FOTD...

Products used:

MAC Painterly Paint Pot (base)

Revlon Vintage Lace matte eyeshadow (highlight)

Fyrinnae Danse Macabre (inner corner to middle of lid)

Fyrinnae Eternal Innocence (outer corner of lid)

Fyrinnae La Noche (crease)

Fyrinnae Catrina Cabaret (above crease to blend)

Fyrinnae Pearl Sun (inner corner)

Sephora eye pencil in 085 (baby blue- waterline)

Cover Girl Liquiline Blast liner in Blue Boom (waterline- blended with Sephora liner)

Hard Candy 1,000 Lashes mascara in Mermaid Teal

Eyeko Graffiti Eyeliner Pen in Navy Blue

Hard Candy lipstick in Fire Alarm (you would think it was gonna be red)

MAC Toxic Tale lipstick (switched to after first picture)

Ignore the hair, I told you my bangs are ridiculous!

Products used:

MAC Painterly Paint Pot (base)

Revlon Vintage Lace matte eyeshadow (highlight)

MAC Violet

MAC Viz A Violet

MAC Beauty Marked

Fyrinnae Shinigami

Prestige liquid eyeliner in Fame

Maybelline the Falsies mascara

MAC Bite of an Apple blush

My bangs are out of control.

Beauty Marked is the only MAC shadow I have kept (I find them chalky with horrible color pay off, I honestly think they are very overrated) and while it is incredibly hard to work with the color is gorgeous. I love the blue shimmer added by Shinigami, I think it really ties in with the silver-blue liner. I am making an effort of using my fun colored liner more but am finding it hard to not rely on my old faithful black liquid.

Liner side- L to R: Silver Sky, Onyx Smoke, Bronze Fire
Top to bottom: Bronze Fire, Onyx Smoke, Silver Sky.

Shadow side- L to R: Silver Sky, Onyx Smoke, Bronze Fire

L to R: Silver Sky, Onyx Smoke, Bronze Fire

Swatched L to R: Silver Sky, Onyx Smoke, Bronze Fire

Smudged swatches L to R: Silver Sky, Onyx Smoke, Bronze Fire

These are very creamy, so creamy in fact that the first time I used them one of the little nubbins broke when I opened it!
And it's a CLEAN break! Right off the base.

Here they are applied on the eye. Because they are creams I used a base on one eye and the other with none.

Silver Sky applied over mac Painterly Paint Pot

They both look overly shimmery and greasy, something I don't like at all. These apply very easily and are general easy to use.

Let's see how they hold up after an hour...