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.

UD 24/7: I'm thankful for more important things, but I still like these very much.

Took this picture last Saturday as part of Friends & Family Aftermath (which will be the topic of the next Monday Makeup Madness--gotta start that up again, and since I have next Monday off, I really should post something). This is a comparison of the (at the time) six set-exclusive UD 24/7 shades paired with what I believe to be the closest colors from their permanent line. Honey and Eldorado really are quite different, aren't they? Anyway, I meant to post this a couple of days ago and even thought about doing some sort of poll asking which shade would be the best addition to the permanent line. Well, I'm glad I didn't do that, because on Tuesday, four of those shades were officially added to the line: Oil Slick, Binge, Mildew and Crash. All are lovely, but it bums me out a bit that Corrupt didn't make the cut. That brown suits me much better than Bourbon does. Oh well.

Today is Thanksgiving here in the US, so Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :D

Monday Makeup Madness: Friends & Family

In case you haven't already heard about this: the Urban Decay Friends & Family Event is on through November 20th. Use coupon code FNFW1 to get 30% off your entire order. So now would be the time to get UD presents and/or those sets and palettes you've been eyeing. :P I've compared one of the set-exclusive 24/7 Eye Pencils with some similar shades:



Left side is indoors, right side is outdoors. Crash is the exclusive shade in the Stereophonic 24/7 set (regular price $29). I'd say it's just the slightest bit more red than Rockstar, plus it has silver sparkles. Do I think you need Crash if you already have Rockstar? No. That said, I do like Crash. I've found that reddish plums look like crap on me, but this color is purple enough that it works. It makes my green eyes stand out on top of that. Anyway, to recap, if you have Rockstar, you're good here unless you Must. Have. Every. Pencil.


Back to the Friends & Family topic for a bit. I picked up a few things during Sephora's F&F that are due in tomorrow. If I remember, I'll post pictures next week. I looked at a lot of things that I liked but didn't bother to get. A couple of examples:

Kat Von D True Romance Eyeshadow Palette in True Love, $34: I am a fan of this brand (and I picked up the 500-point bonus palette with my order), but I have enough purples that look like those and the brown side looks like it'd be too warm for me.

MAKE UP FOR EVER Aqua Eyes Collectors' Set, $249: My thought when seeing this was "ooh, that's pretty...but no." Even with 20% off I wasn't tempted. I know it's a deal, considering, but I'd use half of those colors at the most. I could see getting this if I had no eyeliner at all and frequently did artsy sorts of looks (and that's a no on both counts, heh).

Monday Makeup Madness: Linkroll

Feeling lazy tonight. I went to the Giants game earlier today, and now I'm just relaxing on the couch watching tennis. I attempted to swatch eyeshadow earlier the week, but I still have to work on the pictures. Perhaps next week. In the meantime, I present to you some links of interest:

All About the Parabens (The Next Best Thing to Going Shopping Yourself)
I enjoyed reading this. I'd been hearing "paraben-free" a lot but didn't really know what the deal was.

Anime and Company (The Girly Show)
OCC Lip Tar mixes featuring the color Anime. This one's over a month old, but it's still interesting.

Urban Decay Nail Polish!! New Apocalyptic Nail Kit for Holiday 2009! (Scrangie)
When I first saw these I was highly intrigued. However, the more I thought about it, the more clear it was that I didn't NEED it. I have way too much nail polish as it is, plus it's a set, and I could only see myself using half of them on a regular basis. I've seen some complaints that these colors aren't "unique like UD's old nail polish colors". I don't know...it seems like it was easier to make a unique color then than it is now. I mean, these days it's pretty easy to find nail polish in every color of the rainbow if you so desire. Anyway, for this set, the most interesting shade to me is White Widow, and the one I'd be most likely to wear is Gunmetal.

Another thing that was funny--and maybe some of you noticed this--is that the price was $25 but changed to $26 a couple of days later. I also noticed a similar change for their 24/7 sets--the Hi-Fi & Stereophonic sets were $30, then they were $29, while the Super Stash dropped from $39 to $36. I noticed the changes on urbandecay.com a day or two after I saw all of these products listed over on ulta.com with the second set of prices. (I'm going to guess the Super Stash and the nail set sold out over at Ulta since I no longer see them on the site.)

Shamelessly Plugging Urban Decay

(Some of this was paraphrased from my MySpace blog earlier today. Repetitive, yes, but I don't mind.)

I'm a big Urban Decay fan, and I think their Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner is some pretty awesome stuff. However, it's normally $18--yikes--so when I found out that the 3-pc. set they put together (regularly priced at $36) was on sale for $22, I snapped that up...as did everyone else because they appear to be out of it now. :P Uses will be found for the silver and purple liners, but I'm most excited about Stagedive, the turquoise one...I love anything turquoise or teal. Going to Sharks games will include glitter next season. :P Though the Three Piece is out of stock, you can still find three different "Best of Urban" sets on sale for $20...they each include a Heavy Metal eyeliner, an eyeshadow ($16 if purchased alone), a mini 24-7 eye pencil and a mini Primer Potion. I highly recommend getting one of those if you're new to the brand, it's a great introduction. :) The XXX Shine Stash looks like a good buy as well, but I did not partake as I have enough lip gloss and no young female relative/friend birthdays coming up. If those glosses had sun protection, though...I'd have been on it, hahaha.

Since I'm playing more of the "look but don't buy" game these days--gotta save as much money as possible for important future plans--I was thrilled to come across the Best Makeup Under $10 article over at Makeup Geek. I'm interested in the eye makeup remover and maybe the foundation. I don't really use much in the way of foundation, especially when the weather's warmer, I just slap on the sunscreen and go--but this might be worth a try.