Palette Parade Check-In: Urban Decay Neutral Custom 6-pan

Not sure what the Palette Parade is? Check out this post here.

Sorry guys, this is a fairly tame one. This week I used the Urban Decay custom 6-pan - the pan came with my favorite blending shade, Walk of Shame, and I added Virgin, Tease, Laced, Buck and Secret Service. Very matte, very basic.

How basic is this? So basic. 

I had planned to use it with some Geek Chic singles but I was rushed for time a lot this week and the loose format of the Geek Chic singles mean you really need time to put down a sticky primer like Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy - and there's not a lot of room for error once that stuff is on. (I'm going to try and do a swatch-and-review soon on Pixie Epoxy. That stuff is wonderful and a little scary with how long it lasts.)

Given that, I spent most of the week with my face looking like a variation of: 

Basic face is basic. 

Lipstick is Urban Decay's Gash, which is exclusive to their website

I really wish Naked Basics had a few more shades in it - if it was this palette, plus Crave, it would probably be my favorite thing ever. One of the very nice things about Laced is that it doubles as a blush for me and Buck can also work as a contouring shade - which makes this palette very versatile for me, as it's more than just eyeshadow shades.

Additionally, I feel like the Urban Decay single shadows are a bit overpriced at $18 each - MAC charges $10 for pans, the shadows in Urban Decay's own palettes break down to somewhere around $4 a pan. It really provides an incentive to purchase palettes where you can. That said, I like the build-your-own palettes. I wish Urban Decay had gone with a less bulky way of managing the packaging, think of how much space we could save with something more like a naked pan and it would have less plastic, less to ship, and less expense!

We had a sunshine-lite week last week but I did finally manage to get black shadow comparison swatches. Expect to see them on Wednesday!

Next week's Parade Check In: Naked 2 or Smashbox Full Exposure. I haven't decided yet. 

Nail of the Week: Butter London Petrol

After my recent post on Zoya polish being the only polish I use, a friend begged me to give Butter London another chance. Given that my application and routine have improved since the last time I gave it a try, I was considering it. Then I stopped in at Nordstrom's Beauty Trend event and they had the Backstage Basics kit just sitting there. So I picked it up with Petrol.

Butter London Petrol

I've been wearing this for three days so far and, I'm sorry to say, I've got major tip wear and what looks like a french manicure from the polish wearing away on my right hand. (I'm trying to let it go a full week so I can take photos then.) What you see above is Nail Foundation, three coats of Petrol (it's very sheer as it is intended to be used as a top coat in addition to being a stand-alone,) and a coat of Hardwear.

Petrol is very aptly named - it has the very pretty sheen of gasoline or an oil slick. No photo I could manage did it justice.

I do like the feel of both the base coat - Nail Foundation - and Hardwear, the top coat, better than Zoya's. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be doing the job as well. I wish Zoya could do something to be as quick-drying and lightweight as the Butter feels without sacrificing the quality and wear time. I do use Zoya's quick-dry drops but they leave my fingertips greasy until I'm comfortable washing my hands. Butter London's top coat dries quickly with no fuss. 

I think for the foreseeable future, I'm sticking with Zoya and will only be picking up Butter London polishes on sale in shades that Zoya doesn't have (yet.) Admittedly, Zoya is not always up on trend colors, even if they are usually on the frontlines of runway color.

Butter London polishes clock in at $15 per bottle, base and top coat at $19 a bottle - available from Ulta, Sephora, Nordstrom, many Whole Foods stores, and Butter London's website directly. 

Palette Parade Check-in: Sugarpill Heartbreaker

Hey there! Checking in with this past week's palette: Sugarpill's Heartbreaker.

Not sure what the Palette Parade is? Check out this post.

Sugarpill Heartbreaker Palette

I'm kind of a completist. I want to have all of the the options at my fingertips, if there are options to be had. I initially bought this palette with that in mind. I liked the purple (2AM) and blue (Velocity) shades in it and figured the lime green (Acidberry) and mint green (Mochi) wouldn't see much use. How wrong I was. That green shade? Is amazing as in inner corner highlight and that mint green blends like a dream.

I really enjoyed using this palette this week. Unfortunately, I spent so much time playing with it most days that I didn't have time to set up good photos for you guys - especially in the suddenly-bright and then suddenly-dark weather of Seattle's standard spring. 

Not very helpful, is it? 

I did get some decent photos on two days and I'll share those with you guys here. 

On my first day using these, I was worried that I was going to wind up with a week's worth of looks that were so similar to what I got from Sweetheart - which I very much liked but were overwhelmingly blue and intense. I think the purple in this palette is what really rounds it out and makes it capable of softer looks, if you need it to be.

 

You can kind of see the similarity to the Sweetheart look here.

(Lipstick is Urban Decay's Obsessed)

That same day, eyes open: 

Indoors, it was a very soft look, which was not the case with Sweetheart.

When you throw the green into the mix, you get something that really pops but doesn't scream that you're wearing neon shadow:

 

I think this looks completely different with and without glasses. Sorry about the brows, we're having a tussle over control of the shape. The brows are winning. The eyeliner (Sugarpill's Royal Sugar loose shadow and MAC Mixing Medium) miss is thanks to a ready-to-leave four year old. :)

See? Glasses seem to make the purple crease seem stronger. 

(Lipstick is Urban Decay's Catfight)

I'm kind of surprised to say this, but I think this may wind up being my favorite of the three matte palettes from Sugarpill. I'll have to do a showdown between this and Burning Heart at some point and see but I see lots of use in this palette's future. The mint shade as a lid color really ties together and grounds brighter purples, blues, and greens. Acidberry brings a color that can't be matches, which really helps keep the colors in this palette firmly out of 80s-theme-day territory. 2AM, the purple, is just red enough to play well with Velocity, the royalest of all blues. Like every other Sugarpill shadow I've put my hands on, these all blend amazingly and can be packed on for intense color or blended out for a soft wash. 

You can pick these up from Beautylish like I did, from Sugarpill directly, or Makeup Geek's store for $32 (shipping varies.) Shades are available in the palette or individually.

Do any of you want reviews on the Urban Decay Revolution lipsticks? The line was revamped not too long ago and a few samples wound up dragging me in - the shade range really fills the gaps that MAC seems to miss, cool-toned mid-range and not-red shades. 

Coming up this week: a new black-shadow face-off - will Makeup Geek's Corrupt out-black Blackout? 

No Post Today Because...

No post today because Comcast decided to really muck up my Business Class internet service. However, I have a post coming over the weekend on customer service I've received at various beauty retailers.

No, it's not lost on me that my customer service post was delayed by Comcast.

Nail of the Week: Pinta and Chloe

As I've mentioned before, I use almost entirely Zoya polish because it holds well for over a week and keeps my nails strong. In last week's madness, I didn't get a chance to shape or paint my nails which lead to some breakage. When that happens, I tend to cut them short and even and go for a glittery or dark (or both, in this case) color.

I had some trouble capturing the holographic glitter that is Chloe's main characteristic. I'm not seeing Chloe on Zoya's US website but I am seeing it on their Australian website (lucky Aussies!) Any pink-toned holographic flake nail polish should have the same general effect, I haven't found them to be all that different from one another and there are quite a few out there - Milani, Color Club, Chanel, and a lot of indie brands have all made holographic flake polishes.

Chloe here is layered over Pinta, which is a deep royal purple cream. The end effect is something like a speckled egg and works well as a transition-to-spring color, as well as a transition-to-fall color.

Here you can really see the base color of Pinta but the fleck isn't showing up that well.

And here you can see the fleck of Chloe but the base color isn't showing up that well. 

I find that I like darker colors better for shorter nails than bright colors but that is perhaps a product of remembering the '90s well and the admonitions to not wear black polish on long nails (which I do anyhow.) Do you keep your short nails bright, light, or dark? 

Ellis Faas Skin Veil in S101

I finally got my hands on some Ellis Faas Skin Veil in S101. At $90 a bottle, available from Sephora and Ellis Faas directly, I had some high hopes for this shade as I had been told that it was "paler than reasonable." In fact, Ellis Faas doesn't even keep samples of this shade available because they consider it too pale for common sampling.

I will say that the finish on this medium-coverage natural-finish foundation is astounding. It doesn't glow too much, it isn't too matte, it feels great on your skin. If you have a shade match in this foundation and don't cringe too much springing for a $90 foundation, I would highly recommend this one. It has the finish that so many other brands promise and truly delivers on a flawless face.

Unless, like me, the lightest shade looks like a yellow-orange mask on your face. As I have mentioned, winter light in Seattle isn't the best for photography, so  apologize in advance for the weird shadow on the face photo here. I wanted to take a better arm swatch photo but I also wanted it to match the previous ones so you could really compare them if you went back to my large swatch post of paler foundations, so this is taken in exactly those conditions.

From left to right: Jane Iredale Glow Time BB in BB1, Ellis Faas Skin Veil in S101, and NARS Sheer Matte in Siberia

As you can see, this is pretty close in shade to NARS Siberia. If Siberia is too yellow but not too dark for you, S101 might be your shade. 

Ellis Faas Skin Veil S101 (and MAC Huggable Lipstick in Rusty)

As you can see, like Siberia it's just a hair too dark on me, which is most unfortunate because the finish is astounding. The medium coverage here is not buildable, in my opinion, so if you need a full coverage foundation I'd look elsewhere.

This is a great foundation, alas just not my color. 

A Rumor and a Sale

My much-discussed pale foundation woes make me really hate to spread false hope on pale foundations but apparently Kat Von D is just as cranky about the Light 42 discontinuation as I am. She told someone on Instagram that she's pushing for them to bring it back. Here's a cap:

I'm not sure that it will actually happen - Sephora has already changed all of their displays but I'd be happy to see it come back just as an online-only option. There are so few options in that shade range that anything we can hold on to would be great! 

In case you haven't made Platinum yet, Ulta is doing their 21 Days of Beauty Steals starting on March 16th. You can actually see the deals in advance over at the 21 Days page on Ulta.com  To be honest, I'm not seeing a lot that appeals to me, personally, but I do see a lot of common favorite products. Stila's In the Know Palette on the 17th for $20, for instance. Other deals include a free Brow Bar wax with minimum purchase of $50, Urban Decay Primer Potion travel set, Tarte's Lights Camera Lashes, Smashbox products, and more. Take a look through the scheduled deals and set some calendar reminders so you don't miss them! 

More rumors about the Sephora Chic Week sale that's supposed to run from March 30th to April 11th - many stores are now scheduling appointments for a Rouge or VIB event on March 30th. My local store told me to watch my email for an online scheduling option but that they weren't taking appointments in person or by phone. Stores in other areas are doing appointments in person and by phone. Some stores are telling Rouge and VIB customers who inquire that they won't need an appointment for the event. Of course, there are those stores that are telling folks they don't know anything about an event. Standard Sephora disorganization, so call your store and check what's going on!

I attended Nordstrom's Spring Beauty Trend Event at one of my local Nordstrom stores and I've got to say, I had a disappointing experience. I have a response from the online Beauty Concierge, so I'm going to see where that goes before I provide a full report but know that some people are getting great service and some are walking out with nothing more than the worst, dated makeover of their lives. Yes, even worse than that Mary Kay consultant a friend dragged me to in the '90s. Yikes!

Palette Parade: Sugarpill Cold Chemistry

Hello! I'm sorry to have missed all of last week - things were a bit hectic and I'm not caught up enough to have posts queued in advance. I'm going to jump right back into this week with last week's Palette Parade check-in: Sugarpill Cold Chemistry. See my first post on the topic, Palette Parade, for guidelines and general information.

This week's palette was Sugarpill's Cold Chemistry.

At first glance, I was worried I wasn't going to get a lot of versatility out of this one and I have to admit, the first few days I was very heavy-handed with it it. This is a very pigmented set of shades - the lighter looks I did this week were a single tap of the brush to the shadow smoked out with a blending brush to create a lighter look. At this rate, I expect this palette to last approximately forever.

Definitely a keeper, this palette will create some very bold looks and some incredible smoky eye looks. I'm going to put my favorite two looks outside the jump and then the rest of the week behind the jump. 

This look was created using only Diamond Eyes (the white shade) and Soot and Stars (the glittery black shade.) One of my favorite daytime smoky eyes ever.

This heavy-handed purple look was early in the week and is only Diamond Eyes and Elemental Chaos.