Snow Blue Beauty

Late with this, but what the heck?  May as well?  It's kind of long and probably no one will read it but for my own reference at least, here's what was working and not working for me this month.  Also, a lot of trash.  I prefer reviews of items that have actually been finished off because you know the person has really had time to use it.  A first impression doesn't mean much.  So here we go. October Hits: Going to be extremely boring and predictable and say Ofra liquid lipstick in Napa Valley .   I've been in a purple lipstick phase this year, and this is my favorite shade and formula.  It wears well, it lasts through my long days of work followed with school, and it wears comfortably.  This particular shade goes with most of my-version-of-neutral eye looks. Panned/Finished Off: Too Faced Shadow Insurance Anti-Crease Eye Shadow Primer :   Can't remember when I bought this.  Probably over a year ago.  It works. ...

The palette: Urban Decay Heavy Metals . Purchased with points at Ulta.  I probably would not have paid cash money for this palette because it looked beautiful but also annoying.  I am tired of depotting awkward palettes.  For free, what the heck?  Note that I'm probably judging a free palette less harshly than I'd just a palette I paid cash for. I'm not going to post swatches.  I think there are plenty of swatches already out there if you just want to see the shades outside the palette.  I'm going to post some of the first looks I got from playing around.  General thoughts on the palette will be at the end.  We begin with a full work week of looks, dumb expressions and all.  I'm not a model.  I mean, obviously.  Just playing around with makeup here. Look 1: Transition/crease shades are Buon Fresco and Venetian Red from ABH Modern Renaissance.  From Heavy Metals, I used Punk Rock all over the lids, Glamrock on the inner co...

I have been feeling unmotivated to branch out from a default daily red look lately, but I branched out slightly this morning.  It began with the usual primer, then Buon Fresco from Modern Renaissance in what I'm calling my crease.  I put down a base of Nyx Jumbo Pencil in Rust on my lids.  Went over Rust with Venetian Red from Modern Renaissance.  These are all common components of my default look but here is where it started deviating from my norm.  I just started looking around at my stash and seeing things I love but don't use.  And then I used them. Blended out Venetian Red into Buon Fresco with the dark purple from Urban Decay's Tenant palette .  I didn't commit the shade names to memory and I can't get the damn picture to enlarge so it's purple, okay?  I used the palest pink from Tenant on the browbones, and the darker pink in the crease area, just adding depth by using some different shades and blending them together.  I used a sli...

Stuff I've been loving, hating, and finishing off.  Ingredients at the end, because there are so many times I realize I'm reacting to something and then I try to think back to what products I've used that had that thing in it.  But I can't turn the information up because the ingredients aren't online, or they've changed, or whatever.  Hits: Cotz Face Non-Tinted SPF 40.  My heritage is Scottish, Irish, English, and Danish.  I'm paler than any human should be in this life.  I fry in the sun and never turn any shade of brown.  I do go yellow on occasion, like an old book.  That's the effect the sun has on me.  I fry, and I turn yellow, and look older.  I reject this.  Chemical sunscreens bother my eyes.   I'd been using La Roche-Posay mineral sunscreen but it was making me a little itchy.  That's when I discovered the cassia alata in it.  I Googled and found out this plant is supposed to cure all kinds of things i...

The Electric palette was something I "had to have" and "would die without" but I actually don't reach for it too often.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe because I need to pull a skin tone from another palette, and also a black if I feel like I need a black.  It's a palette of brights and I love it, but you do need some other shades.  I mean, maybe you don't.  But I do.  So I'm challenging myself to use it every day for a full work week, which is five days. Day One : Going outside my comfort zone with lime green.  Green is just kind of not my color.  I think I can pull it off, but it's hard.  And if you compare with other looks, it's really not the most flattering on me.  Note that I have a new phone, and the camera is a zillion times better than my old one.  This is a blessing and a curse.  I've aged a bit since my last pretty good phone camera.  Also experimenting with Essence Extreme Crazy Volume mascara, and I'm not sure h...

Details on this round of Project Pan here .  Basically, I announced my intention to avoid buying certain types of products until specific products I already own have been used up.  So how's that going for me? I think the day after I posted that, I was buying the Sugarpill Feline Fancy palette from a destash group!  I justified it.  I wanted that palette when it came out but couldn't justify the cost when I already had the (at the time) full Modern Renaissance palette, among others.  I was going to hold out for the release of singles.  They still could come out with singles but they haven't yet.  I saw my opportunity, and I went for it.  Then I remembered I wasn't meant to be buying any makeup!   The next thing I know, ColourPop is re-releasing their She palette .  Another gorgeous palette of reds.  I love reds.  It was like $16, which is next to nothing as far as eye palettes go.  I signed up for the newsletter to...

I have a lot of allergies.  They're not fatal; I'm just not going to feel good.  If I get exposed to dust, I'll have hay fever symptoms and my skin will itch and burn.  I might end up with tonsillitis or a sinus infection.  I have been known to pass out in Wonder Woman pajamas from Walmart on the bathroom floor.  I refuse to die in cheap Walmart pajamas, in the damn bathroom.  I refuse!  This isn't happening!  That was a combination of dust, soy, and probably the plant extracts in all the makeup I was depotting that day.  I passed out, hit my head, and injured my stretched ears.  Probably should have been more concerned about the possibility of concussion, but...my ears?! When you pass out and incur injury, it's harder to pretend this isn't happening.  It's real, y'all.  So I have to take my allergies a little more seriously.  I can't say "Oh, there's probably not enough chamomile in that lotion to bother me" while compl...