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.)

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.

Monday Makeup Madness: Contest Link + Alice Babble

First off, if you haven't entered Krasey Beauty's One Year Bloggiversary Giveaway, you should. She's giving away close to $1000 in products! So go. Right now. I'll wait.


Okay! So most of you probably know about the Alice in Wonderland tie-ins with OPI and Urban Decay...OPI's Alice collection is out now in some places (see a review & swatches at Vampy Varnish), while UD has an Alice-themed Book of Shadows coming out on the 15th (see review & pics at Pursebuzz).

Out of OPI's four colors, two of them are reds, which gave me a "meh" sort of feeling. If I were to get one of them, it would be Absolutely Alice, a lovely bright glittery color, mostly blue with some gold. I can't decide whether or not I like the multicolored glitter...maybe I feel like I'm too old for that kind of party-in-a-bottle.

I have to admit that I'm slightly disappointed in UD's offering in that there's nothing unique--well, besides the Alice packaging. They're all existing UD shades that have been renamed, though some of them are from Book of Shadows II (and one is from the Pony Show palette IIRC), so if you don't have that one, this is your chance to get a hold of a couple of unique shades. I think what really got me down was that I was hoping Alice's "Absolem" shade was a re-release of Absinthe from BOS I, but it's actually Homegrown from BOS II. D'oh! At $52, it's $4 more than the previous Books. I'd say if you have BOS II you can skip this unless you want it for the packaging, which I can understand.