The PIRATE collection - eye shadows from the Lolita Group

Many of you, particularly Voxers, know that I love mineral makeup... especially colorful eyeshadows. Admittedly, mineral eyeshadows take some getting used to in terms of techniques and application methods but to me the payoff and the fact that they are basically never expiring as long as you keep them dry, makes it all worth while.

When Jo from LolitaGroup posted this pic on her wall... I was rather attracted... sparkles have always called to me...

so you can imagine my excitment when she passed me a set of samples... time to swatch and to try them out!

Without further ado... here are my pics...

first up, these were swatched dry and without a primer/base - from left to right, top to bottom - Golden Age, Pirate Bay, Treasure Island, Parley, Treaties, Protocol and Truce

to me, it was rather 'meh' at this point... and I was a little disappointed to be honest. But its so silly to think this way when most if not all mineral eyeshadows require a nice sticky base to make them show their "true colors". 

so here they are on a transparent base (my all time fav - Monistat)... see the difference? Love the sparkles to be honest... so *bling bling*. Just nice for the festive season ahead.

If you don't like them, simply blend the colors out and they'll drop off. But be sure to have a layer of loose powder under your eyes to ease the clean up. :P

on a black base (NYX Jumbo eyepencil in Blackbean). I like how they look so jewel like here... especially Protocol, a really gorgeous burple... blue/purple. 

and last but not least... on a white base (NYX Jumbo eyepencil in Milk) - this one I had to post two different shots cos, to me, there are differences in the way the eyeshadows look... but aren't they pretty?

on white, Pirate Bay comes into its own as a golden yellow...  

Overall, my favourite color has to be Golden Age. It makes a really nice highlight if you're doing an all out EOTD. If you're just looking for a quick pick me up, it works well as an all over lid color together with a quick dash of eyeliner. the other color that I find myself reaching for fairly often is Treasure Island. Its a brown with a reddish tinge to it (i'm horrid at color descriptions!) I love using it as a quick crease color. I find it works with most of the colors that I use most regularly - purples and blues. 

In terms of lasting power, these eyeshadows should take you through a work day of 7-8 hours comfortably. But I did experience some creasing after that point.

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DISCLAIMER :while I am friends with Jo and have received this as a freebie, it does not in any way affect my review of these eyeshadows. As ever, my thoughts on these are as honest and open as I can be. She knows I'll tell her directly if there's something I totally dislike about these! I have many times before on other products. :P 

Lolita New York - two rather special e/s shades

Just wanted to make a special mention of two eyeshadows in Lolita's collection. They are Blue Lagoon and Studio 54.

Not sure if you can see the difference in the picture but its really noticeable when its on your own skin. The top part of the swatch is done dry with no primer; the middle portion is done over a glycerin-based primer and at the bottom, you have a wet swatch. Same eye shadow color but three rather different looks.

The dry swatch looks more faded and less intense. The middle part looks more vibrant and has a glossy sheen to it. Wet, these could easily be used as liners.

I can see how one shade can easily be used for an entire EOTD... as a liner, as a lid color and as a blended out color.

Pretty sure that I'll be getting samples of these two shades when I dop by Lolita NY again... and will report back with EOTDs or something similar. :P

Til next time....

Lolita New York - rainbow colored eye shadows - PIC HEAVY!

This is a follow up on my previous post...

I spent a good hour playing with the eye shadows while wating for a friend to get 'lashed' up. *giggle*.

Eye shadows made by Jo L. are not new to me. I've been playing with them since her SilkMineral days. The textures and staying power have always been good. Different from my usual TSS shades. Slightly more creamy, if that makes any sense.

The full size prices were too high for my comfort zone and I have yet to finish a full size. To be honest, I haven't even finshed any sample baggie I have! Altho' I'm really really close with one of my favourite highlights. So it was with real excitment that I heard Lolita NY was now selling their eyeshadows at SGD3 a baggie. There's an option to pay for jars if you want them that way too. I went home with four little baggies of loveliness... read til the end to find out which. *grin*

These are swatches made on dry skin with no primer at all. I used the cotton buds provided at the store. So pigmentation as you can tell, is rather good. Except for a couple which turned out weird and I found out later where formulated to be used wet.

So lets get to the colors themselves... I'm gonna post several photos so you can get a better idea of the shades. Click on each picture and you should get larger images. Names will be listed from left to right, top to bottom.

Gold Socceress, Green Witch, Purple Temptress, Blue Elf
Break of Dawn, Misty Glow, Dreamy Haze, Yearning Heart
Angel, Charm, Fallen, Unspeakable

I'm gonna start from top to bottom. Angel was a matte purple with a vibrancy that I haven't seen elsewhere. Fallen and Unspeakable have a satin finish that is really very gorgeous.

Really liked Dreamy Haze and Yearning Heart. They have been calling my name for a long time.

Loved the look of the first row in their pots. The colors looked so complex and interesting. Was really disappointed with the way they swatched though... later I found out why. They were supposed to be used wet... so here's more pics of them swatched with a wet cotton bud. Apologies for the small pics but I think they do capture the eye shadows rather well.

NEXT!

New York Taxi, Brooklyn Skyline, Manhattan Skyline, Studio 54, Soho
Serendipity3, Liberty, Central Park, Hudson River, Niagara Falls
The Broadway, Moscato, White Rajah, Warrior Dance, Eagle Dance, Ritual Dance, Daan Kayuh

Studio 54 looked like a lovely crease color...

Central Park was a green that jumped out at me. But I have similar colors already in my collection.

Love the last row of mattes... brought a sample of Daan Kayuh home with me to use as a brow powder.

NEXT!

Asti, Cordon Rouge, Negro Diablio, Tequila Sunrise, Emeraldtini, Blue Lagoon
Rose Gold, Pure, Autumn Ray

Guess I'm on a green streak or something but Emeraldtini called to me and so did Autumn Ray. So I brought both of them home. My other pics for this visit were Yearning Heart and Daan Kayuh.

Stay tune for one more post on these eye shadows and then another on the blusher range... so many pictures and so little time to blog... such is life huh?

Lolita New York - blushes

Like I mentioned in my previous post, Lolita NY has really beautiful mineral makeup. Given that Jo L. is concerned about keeping skin healthy, her makeup products have ingredients that are safe or even beneficial.

Here's her blushes... I saw Moet two or three times and am totally in love with it. Its the third from the left in the pictures.

(from left to right): krouge rose, peach melba, moet, english rose, crystal, sunset cast, cupid, dee blush, love, paddy dance, after glory, bridgestone breeze

Crackle polishes... love them or hate them?

the newest "IN" in the nail polish arena is crackle polish. I remember when I was a little girl, there was a nail polish that was launched I think by covergirl. It stuck in my mind cos one of my teachers used it on her nails and I thought it was so cool.

fast forward to today... OPI released a black crackle called Shatter in their Katy Perry collection late last 2010 and China Glaze is releasing a collection of 6 crackle colors too. Needless to say, both of those two companies sell polishes that are big 3 free...

and everyone in the nail polish world seems to be jumping happily onto the crackle train... dang.. that sounds like a crack train or something huh?

there's this store that I've been looking at at Toa Payoh central for ages now. They have crackle polish they say is from USA. They had them even before OPI even had Shatter out. Prices are SGD12 per bottle or SGD20 for two.

CRACKLE COLORS ~ TOP ROW ONLY

~ their color wheel with swatches ~

I spent some time there... finally... Wan Ting was a sweetheart. She answered all my questions and let me try the colors out. My nails were bare when I went and she cheerfully painted base color coats and crackle coats. Here's the result.

yellow crackle on top of light blue

dark purple (blue toned), medium purple (red toned), bright pink and peach

white crackle on the index finger,
the other two nails... experimenting with dotting pens and dotting tools

Note the names of the crackle polishes are my own *grin*

I've done some online research and found that the brand X&D isn't from USA but from China... and so probably not Big 3 free... ah well...

I bought the two purples... hardly surprising right? here's what I came up with...

medium purple... kinda like this look

dark purple

Looks really similar now that I'm looking at them again. Am wondering if I made a mistake buying such similar colors. If you look at the earlier swatches, the dark purple was a lot darker. Turned out rather differently at home. Sigh. Crackle polish dries matte... its the top coat that makes it shiny.

I bought a couple of other polishes while I was there... and qualified for their VIP card. That gives a 10%  discount on regular prices. I'll post pics as and when I use them.

If you're wondering where to find these polishes, the stall I went to is at Toa Payoh HDB Hub, just outside Lee Hwa Jewellery. This is a permanent stall. They have pushcarts at Northpoint (Yishun) and Jurong Point (Boon Lay).

One last thing...  I have 10 different looks on my nails now and I don't have time to take them off. My church friends are either gonna think I'm nuts or I'm super groovy tonight. What do you think?

Pretty glosses that are good for your lips!

okay... its been a while since I blogged because I wanted the posts to be perfect and I just didn't have the time to get posts perfect... does that make any sense? *sigh*

so here's a draft-type post... but at least its going up... *grin*

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Went beauty browsing with thedottiness recently. We headed down to Lolita NY at Marina Square.

Jo L. has added a new range of lip glosses to her range. Instead of the usual balm style pots, she's made liquid glosses which have tonnes of Vit E and other goodies that result in super soft lovely lips.

I didn't take note of colors or prices.. yeah I know I'm a horrid blogger... sighz... but here are a couple of pics.

The glosses aren't too pigmented so they're good for those who prefer lip treatments without too much colour. I was really tempted by the pink shade... the one on the bottom row, second from the left. But Jo L. told me to finish what I had first. LOL! She's really sweet. But I loved the way my lips looked and felt after trying a sample.

Starburst copied…

First time I saw the video tutorial for this look, I said ‘too bright’ and ‘pink… ewwww!’ But the look stayed in my head for more than a week and I started to try and figure out how I could copy it. Why? well, just cos it’d be something I’ve never done before.

First up, what to use? minerals? or one of my palettes? Minerals was my first choice so I started swatching…

Now although I know I don’t normally buy yellows or pinks much less reds… I plowed through my collection of minerals and turned up with these red/pinks…

• Beauty from the Earth Rasberry
• SilkMinerals Strawberry
• SilkMinerals Pomegranate
• TSS Vampires Tap Dancing (LE Storybook)
• Aromaleigh lookinforakiss
• Aromaleigh peony

nice pinks, not reds, but to me, they looked a little too blue for the eotd I was going for… still looking for that elusive red…

finding yellows was equally challenging…

do you see a problem? I did… no really pure yellow yellows. more golds and bronzey golds. Sigh…

I finally resorted to following VoT’s suggestions on using the 88 matte palette and 120 palette. And here was what I came up with… only thing I left out was the false eyelashes.

• Monistat – base
• NYX jumbo eye pencil in strawberry milk
• from the 88 matte palette – pink, red and white
• from the 120 palette – yellow
• Majolica Majorca liquid liner in black
• Maybelline mascara

So do you think I got close enough to my target? let me know.

Who let the dogs out…

this is a quad that I’ve not given enough love to… its so easy to use and the colors blend smoothly into each other.

The highlight was from DreamWorld Ice Fairey and

coming from Dayna’s Minerals (DM), this is…

Hi Jack, Baby Popo and Mr Sully

      

In particular, I love Mr Sully… the little sparkles lift this color to a whole ‘nother level.

And here’s how I used them…

• Monistat – base
• NYX jumbo eye pencil in french fries – on the lid smudged upwards
• DM’s Hi Jack all over the lid
• DM’s Baby Popo in the crease
• DM’s Mr Sully in the outer v
• DW’s Ice Fairey just under the brows
• UD’s 24/7 liner in electric

 

My Eyeliner collection

Just thought I’d line up all my liners in a pretty swatch… so here’s everything I use on a ‘regular’ basis along with some thoughts on each.

TOP ROW (left to right)

Silkygirl long wearing eyeliner in 02 Black Brown

haven’t used this in eons! especially since I got Maybelline’s gel liner. But this was my first liner ever… so it deserves mention :P

Silkygirl funky eyelights pencil in Ocean Blue (02)

Silkygirl funky eyelights pencil in Pure Purple (04)

to be honest, haven’t used these two in quite a while. Not that they aren’t good… just have gotten really distracted my my MM liquid liners. Will revisit them soon I think, these swatches have gotten me interested again :P

L’oreal HIP liner in 950 Navy

L’oreal HIP liner in 940 Green

Love these two especially for lining the upper waterline. They stay for quite a while and add depth to my lash line. Have been experimenting with using them on my lower lash line using the ELF small angled brush… so far, working out ok. But need to practice a little more to get the effect I’d really like

Majolica Majorca Neo liner in Black (BK999)

Majolica Majorca Neo liner in Shiny Black (BK911)

Majolica Majorca Perfect liner in Green (GR604)

Majolica Majorca Perfect liner in Blue (BL603)

what can I say? I use these liners most of the time. A small thin line defines my eyes while a thicker line with a wing adds a touch of drama. Tacks a little practice to get it done right but once mastered, its the “go to” liner for nice dark bold lines.

BOTTOM ROW (left to right)

UD 24/7 Glide On Pencil in Deviant

UD 24/7 Glide On Pencil in Electric

UD 24/7 Glide On Pencil in Covet

just got these three liners from UD’s GWP promotion. Deviant is full size while Electric and Covet are trial sizes. I have got to say these have to be the silkiest, smoothest liners I’ve ever tried. No issue with smudging soon after applied but once they set, they don’t go anywhere. Lovely. The only down side is the price. *sigh*

Cream/Gel EyeLiner by Maybelline EyeStudio in brown

I don’t use this nearly enough. Find the brush fiddly compared to the other pencils. But I do like this for tightlining on top of other colored liners. Eg if I use the Silkygirl liner and want to define my lash line a little more, I use this smooshed (is that a word??) into my lashes so they stand out more. The colored line is still there but my lashes have an identity of their own.

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What are your favourite liners? and why? Leave a comment and tell me.

I am officially broke… (final part)

My final purchase from Watson’s was the Cream/Gel EyeLiner by Maybelline EyeStudio. Such a long name for my first very little pot of gel liner. :P

It comes with a little brush which I found rather easy to use. Granted, I haven’t washed it yet and already used it. So I might change my mind after I wash it. Still, for now, I’m happy with it. Its super stiff.. more like a very little palette knife than a brush. It smooths on the liner with very little problems.

Here’s some swatches showing how how thin/thick you can get the line using their brush.

I did a very simple look for going out then spent a couple of minutes playing with it a little more when I got home. (This was done while my AHA Exfoliating cleanser was on so the photos are gonna be rather closely cropped.)

Here’s what I came up with.

The most dramatic winged liner look I’ve tried so far

And here’s a double winged look… is that the right term?

   

I’ve used it practically every time I’ve used makeup this week and am really liking this product. It can give me both a subtle addition to the lashline and a dramatic strong line. Plus it lasts on me for more than 12 hours without any serious smudging. While I wouldn’t give up my MM liquid liners or my JEP with e/s on top, any time soon… this will definitely be added to my list of commonly used items.

That’s it from me for now… off to get ready for a workshop and then church.

Have a great weekend everyone!