Monday Makeup Madness: Resisting "Twilight"

When I first saw Karla Sugar's swatches of Guerlain Rouge G Le Brilliant a few weeks ago, I immediately fell in love with B63 Bella. However, I was turned off by the fact that it shares a name with the main character in those "Twilight" novels. (To be fair, I was also turned off by the fact that it costs $46. :P The other color I liked? B21 Bianca, which also happens to be the name of my Wii. ...Moving on.) Now, I don't hate Twilight. I don't even know much about it. However, my nature is to avoid things that have that level of popularity, and Twilight is no exception. It got to the point where I was annoyed by random products coming out that happened to have "Twilight" in the name, either as coincidence or to cash in on the craze (i.e. Bath & Body Works' "Twilight Woods"). When I came across ULTA's eyeshadow named "Twilight", I was torn for a second. Then I remembered I had an eyeshadow called Twilight Grey. And then I remembered that one of the lip products I got in that Bobbi Brown 3-pack over the holidays had Twilight in the name. ("Twilight Heather"? I'll go look later.) Then I was over it.

I was planning on ending this with swatches of the products I mentioned, but the weather didn't cooperate. Hopefully it'll be better this weekend.

Monday Makeup Madness: NOTD + Memento Mori

Hello! It's been a while, so let's start out with a NOTD pic:

This is OPI Dreaming of Red (Holiday 2009 ULTA Exclusive) topped with Essie Matte About You. Brush strokes annoy me, and I recently discovered the "get rid of brush strokes by mattifying" trick, so I thought I'd give it a go for Valentine's Day (which I'm not really into...so I did a bunch of laundry and watched the Winter Olympics, woohoo). I really like this. The color is not as bright as it is in this picture, and in most lights it appears to be a bit blackened at the edges. I meant to change colors for Mardi Gras but that didn't happen, whoops!

My order from Sephora recently came in which included Kat Von D stuff, most of it on sale (quite a few products were half off, I think they still are) and one product that was not: the new limited edition eyeshadow palette, Memento Mori.

 

Like all of the other eye palettes, Memento Mori goes for $34. Like the limited edition palettes, it contains a cream shadow. Unlike the other palettes, this one comes in a white case. The swatches are below. The upper one was taken outdoors, the lower indoors...this one is here so you can see the gold sheen that Peggy has.

True is a vivid medium purple. It seemed kind of weak as far as creams go, but it might work as a base. Solitude is a lavender with a bit of a blue flash to it that's very similar to Urban Decay Asphyxia. As you can see, I had trouble getting this one to show up. Maybe when it's sunny and I have time, I'll see how it looks over True. But I digress. Meditation is a sort of light copper. Agatha Pink is closer to peach than pink IMO. Sugar Skull is pale gold. Peggy is turquoise with a gold sheen. Hard Luck is darker green that seems to have a bit of another color to it, but I need more time in the sun to figure it out. Tijuana is black with copper sparkles.

Overall I'm pleased with this. The pigmentation's pretty good. I just got this, so I haven't had time to wear it and check on staying power, but I've had good experiences with Beethoven and Gypsy so I figure it'll be the same with this one. I'm really curious about the KVD eye primer that's out now...have any of you gotten the chance to try it?

(Disclaimer: These were all products purchased by me.)

Possibly Stupid Questions

1. Is calling something "dumb" offensive to people who are unable to speak?
2. I don't watch "Jersey Shore". Am I missing out on anything?
3. (This one is for Sharks fans.) Do you remember offhand who the current captain is, or do you have to be reminded?
4. Are thunderbolts and lightning very very frightening to you?
5. Do you know the song I referred to in question #4?

Belated Monday Makeup Madness: NYX Sale + NOTD

In case you didn't know, NYX Cosmetics is having a $1 sale on a few of their items through the 25th...mostly select colors of certain products, but I noticed that the entire range of their Ultimate Pearl Eyeshadows are part of the sale! (See Karla Sugar's swatches here.) No affiliation, I'm just a NYX fan. :)

And here's a picture of my nails from the other week: a coat of $OPI Absinthe Makes the Heart over 2 coats of OPI Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow. Pardon the tipwear as this was taken five days in. Also pardon my really dry hands, ack. But I wanted to show you the color. I initially planned on only wearing Aragon, but I fell asleep before it dried...so I fixed it with Absinthe. I have yet to try Absinthe by itself, but I heard it was on the sheer side. Since this is layered over a dark green, I'm thinking it would look slightly different layered over black. From a distance, this looked like a nice shimmery army green.

Random Tuesday Music: Chasing Pirates

Performed by: Norah Jones
Album: The Fall (2009)

I chose the Late Show clip because that was the first time I heard the song. (See the video here.) I'm honestly not sure whether or not I like it. Norah Jones' songs generally put me to sleep, but this one makes me feel like I'm on a boat. Perhaps that fits in with the whole "pirates" thing. For the record, I didn't know she was singing "pirates" until I looked up the name of the song.