Tarte Holiday Blush Palette

Went to my local Sephora to check out all the new holiday goodies that are already out, and a few of my instagram buddies were already posting about this gorgeous blush palette by Tarte cosmetics and had to see it for myself. I was definitely NOT disappointed!

This palette retails for $42, it is limited edition and is available in Sephora stores and Sephora.com.

It's a nice sleek palette, and has all the sparkly bling that screams that the holidays are around the corner. The "Off the Cuff" palette also comes with a super cute cuff bracelet adorned with a gold bow (and I love bows!); the bracelet has two snap on buttons, which can be a con as it may not fit everyone. But very stylish nonetheless!

There are 4 blushes and 1 matte bronzer, the blushes are: Crave, Dazzled, Darling, and Dollface, and the matte bronzer is called Park Avenue Princess.

From L to R: Crave, Dazzled, Darling

From L to R: Darling, Dollface, and matte bronzer Park Avenue Princess

Swatches from L to R: Crave, Dazzled, Darling, Dollface, and Park Avenue Princess

Final thoughts: This is the perfect gift for yourself or for any beauty or blush enthusiast for the holidays. I love that it has a variety of colors to complement many skintones rather than showcasing one color family. It's great for traveling because it's sleek and small enough to fit anywhere without taking up a lot of room. The matte bronzer is great for contouring and is a nice addition to the palette. I love the permanent Tarte blushes so it's a no brainer these have the same amazing quality that Tarte continues to deliver.

From the Sephora website:

What it does:
The perfect gift for the spontaneous blush enthusiast, this palette comes with a range of five full-size shades and a wearable eco-chic bow cuff that’s sure to be the season’s hottest accessory. This limited-edition set complements all skin types and is infused with skin-balancing Amazonian clay that lasts up to 12 hours for fade-free, flawless wear.

This set contains:
- 4 x 0.158 oz Amazonian 12-hour blushes in Dollface (light pink), Dazzled (soft rose), Darling (nude melon), and Crave (pink peach)
- 0.158 oz Amazonian clay bronzer in Park Ave Princess
- Wearable, eco-chic bow bracelet 

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Paw Palette (www.crystalpowder.com)

Calling all makeup artists! The "Paw Palette" is an adjustable strap-on palette to fit any size wrist (www.crystalpowder.com); allowing you to mix and apply makeup as you work your magic on your client. It keeps things sanitary as opposed to applying makeup to the back of your hand, and you can use it your palm if that's more comfortable. The palette itself, is a white nonporous board and it's reusable and easy to clean. And the straps are made of durable elastic band and is easy to adjust.

You can also inquire if you need extra long straps or a special size, but it definitely fits most sizes! I like that you can efficiently and quickly work on clients since you can put on swatches of concealer, foundation, lipstick, etc all on the palette and have everything within reach.

You can purchase this palette for $14.95 at the Cinema Secrets store in North Hollywood, or at www.crystalpowder.com

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Z Palette & Devucosmetics.com

 Comes in black, pink, leopard, and zebra print, and in two sizes (small/large)

Tina from Devucosmetics.com is so amazing! She responds to emails right away and answers any questions you may have; AND she was nice enough to give my readers 15% OFF your entire purchase! USE CODE: NESS15. They also ship internationally! I was honored when she asked if I would review some of her products because I was actually looking to buy a Z Palette. I have seen these palettes at every IMATS show and never bothered to get one, but I have TONS of MAC palettes, and it's a pain traveling with all those palettes or even trying to choose between certain ones; and the Z Palette eliminates some of that fuss.

For those of you who may not have not heard about Z Palette 's ($20), it's basically a customizable palette that's completely flat with a magnetic bottom (no pre-designed pots or worrying about pan sizes). If you have any pan refills that have a magnetic backing, such as MAC blushes, eyeshadows, etc. (it can be used with other brands as well), it can hold your pans so you have only what you want or need. It has a clear see-thru lid so you can easily see what's in your palette, no need for labeling...it's made of what feels like a really sturdy cardboard, but I am sure in time it will be subject to wear and tear and may start to get flimsy, or even the clear lid might start to get raggedy, but it's definitely strong enough to last you a long time.

Even if you have things you want to depot that DON'T have a magnetic backing, you can easily find magnetic dots or squares at any craft store and glue them to the back of the pan so that they can stick to the Z Palette. [Watch my video below to see a demo of the Z Palette in action].

Comparisons? In comparison to the MAC Palettes, they are not that much bigger (watch video to see them side by side), I like that these are bigger than the Unii palettes, and cheaper ($20 vs. $29/$30), even though I think the Unii palettes are really sturdy, well made, and innovative- they are just way too tiny for me. If they had them in a bigger size, I would love them!  If I ever decide to get one, one of these days, I will compare them for you guys.

I also got a couple of fabulous lashes (which I already used in a FOTD, i'll post soon!) and a few brushes; the brushes are super soft, not scratchy or harsh, and I like that the ferrules and handles are all black- they look so sleek and professional!

Disclaimer: All product reviews and honest opinions on this site are solely that of my own and I am not endorsed, affiliated, or paid for this review unless otherwise specified. These products were given for review consideration by www.devucosmetics.com.

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Bornprettystore.com

Happy New Year ladies! Sorry i've been slacking this week in posting, everyone's back from vacation so i've been busy catching up at work and because the fiance and I are moving next week (even though I feel like we just moved into our place!), but I am moving to be closer to work since the commute now sorta stinks. So I am sad leaving the home we had so many memories in, but looking forward to making new ones at our new place; which is going to cut my commute from an hour to less than 30 minutes! But I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with loved ones, and toast to the New Year! May 2011 bring lots of luck, happiness, good health, and of course more money wouldn't hurt either! LOL.

Product: 4 out of 5

Packaging: 5 out of 5

Quality: 5 out of 5

Anyway, I had an opportunity to try out a couple of 16 shimmer eyeshadow palettes from www.bornprettystore.com, as well as their sponge bun maker. When I first saw these palettes I was amazed at how colorful they are, and when I swatched them on my hand, they were so pigmented! I've seen random palettes from places that look bright and pigmented, but are far from it when you swatch them, and definitely not the case with these. I wish these palettes came in all neutral colors as well for everyday wear, or even a matte version to switch things up. They also come with sponge-tip applicators.

These are without a base, pretty pigmented!

Product: 4 out of 5

Quality: 4 out of 5

Their sponge bun maker is so nifty and makes nice loose hairstyles in a jiff. My hair is long, thick, and heavy, so usually I can't rock hair 'do clips that make updo's or buns because my hair just weighs it down and my head ends up feeling bruised at the end of the day, but because these are made out of foam, they are pretty comfy to sport and makes it easy to do a messy bun or chignon in seconds. Although I had to use some bobby pins to pin a few pieces since it wouldn't hold all my hair together, it still came out great! It's great for those of you with shorter hair, or fine hair as it will hold up really well, for us ladies with long and thick hair, it takes a bit of work and you may need some pins to keep it in place, but you can still make nice hairstyles.

From their website:

A loose chignon I did for a wedding:

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Urban Decay Naked Palette & FOTD

I know, this gorgeous palette has been out for how many months now and I am barely getting around to posting about it...but because you ladies are awesome, have been so supportive and understanding, I made y'all red velvet cupcakes! I love baking (more than cooking! but the fiance is opposite, he loves to cook, so it works out LOL). And since I am a sucker for sweets and cupcakes, I made a batch of jumbo red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and man oh man do I love cream cheese frosting! :)

Anyway, I got the Naked Palette from Urban Decay months ago when they first came out and let me tell you- this palette is gorgeous. I totally love neutral browns esp. eyeshadows with a little shimmer, it's the perfect color for Fall!

Honestly, if you are debating to get this or the neutral palette from MAC's Tartan Tale Holiday Collection, I would highly recommend you get this one!

Why? Well let's break it down, the Urban Decay palette is $44 at Sephora and Urbandecay.com, AND you get 12 good-sized, well-pigmented eyeshadows- that's LESS than $4 per eyeshadow! Not only do you get the eyeshadows, you get a double-sided pencil of their infamous eyeliners, in "Zero" and "Whiskey", and a small size of their eyeshadow Primer Potion. With the MAC holiday palettes, they are $38 for only 6 eyeshadows, and half the time, you end up only like 2 out of the 6 colors (at least I know that's the case for me haha). And overall, I just love ALL the colors in this palette, they are just so pigmented and there's a variety of shades from light to dark (even a black and a soft gray color) to achieve neutral or dark smokey looks.

[click on pics to enlarge]

 

 

Swatches done dry, with finger, in one swipe:

And here is a simple neutral look I did using the UD Naked Palette (as well as the MAC Pro Longwear Concealer and Foundation which I will do a review and post on soon):

 What I used:

[Face]

- MAC Pro Longwear Concealer in NC20

- MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NC30

- MAC Pro Longwear Foundation in NC35

- MAC Sheer Pressed Powder in NC35 as a finish/setting powder

[Cheeks]

- MAC "The Soft Meow" Mineralize Blush

- MAC "Emote" blush for contouring 

[Eyes]

- Mixture of "Naked" and a little "Sin" e/s on the lower lid

- Mix of "Buck" and "Smog" on the outer-v and crease

- A little bit of "Hustle" on the outer-v

- MAC e/s in "Bisque" and "Orb" as highlight

- MAC Fluidline in "Blacktrack"

- L'Oreal Telescopic Mascara in very black

- UD eyeliner in "Rockstar" on lower lashline

[Lips]

- MAC lustre lipstick in "Lazy Day"

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Product Review: Amuse Diamond Palette

For CherryCulture.com



This diamond makeup kit by Amuse is such a mega palette, probably the biggest I have ever owned! This palette contains 48 soft and smooth, almost metallic, eye-popping eye shadows, 4 chunky glitter eye shadows and 1 light pink matte blush. It also comes with two separate eye shadow applicators for the eye shadows, the blush and the glitter eye shadows. This diamond makeup kit truly lives up to its name because it's just filled with tons of shimmer and glitter.

The Amuse Diamond Makeup Kit personally isn't a palette I would enjoy because at the age of 26, I have gotten over the glitter phase, however some of the eye shadows are perfect because they are not glittery, just the perfect shimmer, while some of the eye shadows are sheer. The one thing I noticed about Amuse eye shadows is that they have a very strong fragrance to their eye shadows, and I immediately noticed this even before I took the palette out of the box. It's not a horrible smell or anything, just unusual for makeup in general to smell like that. The eye shadows itself have a tiny flower pattern on them and I felt like this was a palette for little girls with the way it was made, because the colors are so delicate. I think it's definitely a palette that fits more of my sister's taste who is seventeen years old; since she doesn't need a lot of coverage or makeup in general, these eye shadow colors are perfect for her age because they aren't too sheer, but not too pigmented either to where it would be too much. The eye shadows itself are really soft to the touch and you get a lot of color in one swipe. They almost have a “metallic-look” to it.

The palette itself has tiny round dome windows on the cover above each eye shadow so that you can see the color in the palette. As much as I love palettes because they are somewhat of a space saver, this palette is too large for my liking and therefore it's not one I can really carry on board if I were to travel, or a palette that I can just put in my purse or makeup bag. But for the gals that do love glitter and shimmer, this is a nice palette to just keep on your dresser or vanity because there are really lots of colors to choose from and it's $14 on CherryCulture.com

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Haul & Swatches: Mehron Aqua Paradise Palettes in Pastel & Tropical

I was so happy to finally receive my Mehron Paradise Palettes today (and a Ben Nye Lumiere e/s in "Turquiose")! They are water-activated moist cakes that go on super pigmented once dry and really have remarkable staying power. They are easily removed with soap and water, but even there was still a bit on me, so it stays on! I saw xsparkage do a video on these and I was intrigued. :)

I can't wait to do a look with these! You can get them from Bubba Sikes or from Stage Supply.

So how do these differ from the MUFE (Make Up For Ever) Flash Color Pots and MAC Paint Pots?

The MUFE Flash Color Pots are pigmented as well, but the consistency is that of a cream, so it tends to crease and you must use a lot of eyeshadow on top control it from creasing, but even then it comes off easily and doesn't stay on.
The MAC Paint Pots are awesome, I love them and they have become a staple in my makeup bag, they too dry to a nice finish making it a decent base (for ME anyway) and since they come in different colors it can enhance the look of your eyeshadows. However, they do not have a wide range of colors (such as a bright purple or a yellow).
The Mehron Palettes come in bright and basic eye-catching colors, very pigmented and vibrant, dries to a nice finish and stays on. Makes a great base to bring out the colors of eyeshadows, also great for face painting since they are true in color, made with aloe and chamomile and other ingredients that are safe to use on the face.

Video on my haul along with swatches:




















I also got a single Ben Nye Lumiere Eyeshadow in "Turquiose" (swatch is in the video):

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