Ten Three Labs

Hiya! Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween yesterday! Speaking of the spook-tacular, I want to introduce you all to a super-cool, new indie cosmetic collection called Ten Three Labs. (10/03 also happens to be my bday, woo woo!)

Cara, the owner, makes and packages the products herself. I love that about small, independent operations. So much care is put into the creation and presentation. It's also very satisfying knowing that I'm getting a domestically-made product!

First of all, I was thoroughly charmed by the package design. It conjures up imagery of some magical, gothic/victorian apothecary. In addition to cosmetics, included in my package were whimsical little extras, such as candy, flower seeds, and a novelty, fortune-telling fish. (I always wanted one of those) It's the little things and attention to detail which makes me develop an affinity for certain brands.

The shadows are richly pigmented in a variety of deep, earthy colors to brights to pastels. The full-sized jars will probably last me a lifetime, while the generous sample bags will probably last for many, many applications. You're getting so much product for such a great price, this is seriously a steal!

I haven't tried the balms yet, but they look and smell wonderful. I'm sure I won't be disappointed, but I'll update you all on my experience with them once I get a chance to try them.

Here is a look I did with some of the shadows. Products listed below.

I did a soft, romantic look using a combination of pink and grey...one of my all-time, favorite color combos.

Products used:

• Urban Decay Primer Potion in Eden
• Etude House black gel eyeliner
• Eyeko Making Eyes gel pencils in Dove Grey and Powder Pink
• Ten Three Labs shadows in Shelley's Big Eye and Antoinette
• Eyemimo Cosmetics eyelashes in GLM13

I love the way the pale pink looks on my lower lash line. I have small eyes and doing this creates a brightening, eye-opening effect!

Head on over to Ten Three Labs to check out Cara's wonderful, handmade beauty products! I highly recommend this brand.

Happy Saturday, all!

Hugs,

Cat

*This post contains commercial samples provided by the manufacturer for the purpose of review.

Navy Blue and Teal Glitter Mani

I call this one the Midnight Sorceress! :D I know I've been sharing a lot of Halloween-inspired makeup, so I wanted to add some festive nail designs in the mix as well.

This is pretty much the same technique that I use for my other glitter gradients. See my Halloween Disco Nails tutorial.  However, the lighter part of the gradient begins at the cuticle of the nail as opposed to the tips.

Products used:

• Revlon Moon Candy polish in Galactic
• Orly nail polish in It's Up To Blue
• Wet N Wild Mega Rocks polish in Slap The Bass

More Halloween-inspired nail looks to come, so stay tuned!

Hugs,

Cat

LA Splash Limited Edition Lipsticks

A couple weeks ago, LA Splash announced a pre-sale for their limited edition lipstick collection, featuring bold, eccentric colors, undoubtedly inspired by Melt Cosmetics, an indie brand who was the first to introduce a daring collection of muted, yet noteworthy shades in addition to a few megawatt brights. The demand for Melt lipsticks were high…but so was the price tag. In response to this, LA Splash was quick to release their own collection of Melt dupes. I was able to pick up a bundle of five for the pre-sale price tag of $35, as opposed to the $19 apiece price of Melt lipsticks. I chose Envy, Vanity, Romance, Wrath, and Greed. Here are my lip swatches, straight out of the tube:

My assessment of each individual shade is as follows:

• Envy: meant to be a dupe for Melt's Blow. It's a really beautiful shade of deep teal with just a hint of metallic shimmer. Though advertised as "ultra-matte", I wouldn't consider it to be a matte lipstick. It's densely pigmented and applies evenly in a single pass. I think I could almost consider wearing it out.
• Vanity: Doesn't really resemble any shade that Melt carries, so I would consider it the most original of the bundle that I ordered in terms of color. It's a matte, radioactive purple that's very vibrant, matte, and opaque. Definitely an eye-catcher.
• Wrath: meant to be a dupe for Melt's Space Cake. A medium shade of blue-gray, it's pigmented, opaque, and truly matte. Probably the closest to resembling a Melt dupe from the bunch that I received. The color itself is gorgeously understated, but makes a huge statement when worn.
• Romance: possibly an attempt at Melt's 6six6, it looked pretty promising in the tube, but didn't really meet my expectation when worn. It's more of a fuchsia-orchid shade with a hint of purple, was only semi-opaque and was more of a satin finish, definitely not matte. It had more slip than the other four shades and took a few passes to obtain an even coat of color.
• Greed: definitely meant to be a dupe for Melt's famous DGAF. This one was the most disappointing of the bunch. It was pigmented, but didn't apply evenly or opaquely and definitely wasn't matte. I tried my best, but you can see how splotchy the color is in the image, despite my efforts. This shade of blue is extremely difficult to do, I'm sure. I have yet to own one that works successfully. My guess is that, if you want to wear this shade of blue and wear it well, you're probably best off investing in the real deal.

In a nutshell, I highly recommend Envy, Vanity, and Wrath. They are unique, densely pigmented and apply very opaque and evenly. The quality definitely exceeds the price, I feel.

To be honest, I would skip Romance and Greed. The colors are beautiful, but the formula definitely needs tweaking. I'm sure there's a perfectly good dupe for Romance somewhere out there, it's not an uncommon color. If you're considering purchasing Greed as an inexpensive dupe for Melt's DGAF, I would recommend saving your money towards actually buying DGAF.

Those are my thoughts! Hope some of you found this review helpful and thanks for reading

Hugs,

Cat

Easy Emerald Eyes with Stila Magnificent Metals

Almost done with finals and then I can go back to making higher quality video tutorials and full-face looks! Anyhoo, more Stila Magnificent Metals Foil Finish shadows arrived on my doorstep today, Metallic Emerald being one of them. I was simply too excited and started playing with it right away. Here's what I did!

Products/Instructions:

1. As always, begin with a primed eye and apply green eyeshadow to the inner and outer corners of your eyelid. I used the green shade from my Sleek Ultra Mattes V2 palette.
2. Apply Stila MMFF in Metallic Emerald to the center of the lid.
3. I'm really digging the soft eyeliner look these days. (foolproof) So I lined my upper and lower lash lines with a black pencil.
4. Accent lower liner with more green eyeshadow.
5. Darken outer corners with UD eyeshadow in Libertine.

To finish, curl lashes, apply mascara, and strip lashes, if you like. I'm wearing Ardell Natural Lashes in #106

Aren't these shadows gorgeously sparkly? (Well, ok, I did manually add that last little sparkle to make a point. XD) I'm so addicted! They're a little on the pricey side, $32 each, but coupon codes always pop up now and then, so keep an eye out!

Welps, one more final to go and I'm FREE…for a week. XD Happy Hump Day, y'all and thanks for reading!

Hugs,

Cat

Shimmery Purple Smoke with YSL Pure Chromatics #13

Good evening, everyone! Hope you're all enjoying a lovely Saturday. It's raining here in my neck of the woods, but temperatures are still in the mid to high 60's and we're in a drought so it's much needed. Why am I blogging at 8pm on a Saturday? Because I'm staying in this weekend, and for the next two, in order to finish this leg of my graduation project. :P

Anyways, just thought I'd share my EOTD that I created with the Yves Saint Laurent Pure Chromatics Wet & Dry eyeshadow quad in #13. It's a really pretty, purple toned set of shadows that's decently pigmented when dry and very opaque and metallic when wet. Here is a smokey look that I did dry over primer:

I used the same technique for this look as I did with the Rose Gold Smokey Eye that I did a video demonstration for the other day.

Anyways, back to work for me! Hope you all enjoyed this post, however brief. :) Happy Saturday, everyone!

Hugs,

Cat

Zoya Hot Lips Glossy Balm

Several weeks ago, I purchased a bunch of Zoya nail lacquers from one of their promotions. I was a few dollars away from qualifying for free shipping, so I threw one of their lip glosses into my basket. I did it for the free shipping and didn't really have very high expectations for the quality of the product. I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I ended up liking it!

Though the color is a little intimidating in the packaging, when applied, it gives my lips a glossy, rosy glow. It smells nostalgically yummy, like berry Kool-Aid. The texture is similar to MAC's lipglass, but I want to say that it's lighter and less sticky. The moisture is also very long-lasting. This is definitely my new favorite lip color for my everyday, low-key look. I'm actually excited to pick up a few more of these in different colors!

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy your weekend! <3

Hugs,
Cat

My Beauty Addiction HD Lip Paints

Vibrant lipsticks are so fun to play with! I especially covet the more eccentric colors. Unfortunately, lipsticks in more unusual shades, such as blues and greens, tend to be on the pricier side. Companies such as Lime Crime and Melt make beautiful, unconventionally colored lip products, but at $15 - $20 apiece, an offbeat collection of lip colors can quickly empty your pockets.

Anyways, I was browsing some indie makeup brands on Etsy when I came across My Beauty Addiction, or MBA Cosmetics. I was on a mission for cosmetic glitter, but noticed that they offered a product called HD Lip Paints. Sounds pretty intense, right? I was excited to see that they had such a huge variety of vibrant shades. They're also very reasonably priced and come in full-sized tubes or petite tubes, depending on how much you want to spend and how much you want to commit to a certain color. That, in itself, is pretty darn cool! 

I decided to try out three shades: Grape Crush, Hypnotic, and Indigo.

Petite, slim tubes. Grape Crush, Hypnotic, Indigo.

At $5 apiece, I'm pretty happy with them. Grape Crush looks pinker in photos for some reason, but it's a very pretty shade of violet and is probably the most "normal" of the colors I selected. Hypnotic is the most intensely opaque of the three. I'd consider it a good alternative to Lime Crime's No She Didn't if you don't feel like dropping $18. All colors are fairly faithful in real life to the on-screen representation from the company's site. It's pretty trippy seeing Indigo on in person, beautiful color, though a little more challenging than the other two to apply in an even coat. 

Still, I'm tempted to pick up the yellow and some of the greens, as well, from their collection. The formula is incredibly creamy and not at all drying like many opaque lipsticks. Removing Grape Crush and Hypnotic wasn't really a problem and Indigo wasn't so bad, though it did leave a raspberry-colored stain. I can't really tell you much in terms of wear. I sort of swatched, photographed, and removed since I was going out and these didn't seem appropriate for the occasion.

Anyhoo, here are the full-faced looks with these lipsticks so you get an idea of the overall effect:

Pretty groovy, right? The late afternoon window lighting makes my skin appear a little cooler than it normally would. That or the eccentric colors from the lipsticks threw off the white balance, I'm not sure. But you get the idea.

Alrighty, well, happy Monday, everyone! This was an especially fun post to do and I hope you guys enjoyed it! :D

Hugs,

Cat

Fantastic Frugal Find: $1 Matte Lipstick by Jordana

Hey, guys. Ever heard of that cheap-o cosmetic brand called Jordana? I've always noticed it in the bargain section at grocery and drug stores and have always avoided it because the products just looked so terribly cheap and "ghetto".

Anyhoo, I saw a bunch of their matte lipsticks on sale at my local grocery store the other day and thought it would be fun to just give it a try. What'd I have to lose? They were marked down to $1 from $1.50. I picked a bright, red-orange shade called Tangerine Tango.

I was completely floored by the quality of this lipstick! The color is richly pigmented and opaque, the finish is a creamy matte, the scent is reminiscent of M&M's, and it still looked great on my lips when I removed it 7 hours later, with just some slight fading and feathering (my bad, I didn't use any lip liner). I never had to touch up and I didn't find that it was overly drying for a matte formula. For just $1 apiece, I'm pretty sure I'm going to go back and purchase them in every color available.

A little bit of overkill with the electric, metallic blue eyeliner. Lol. Orange and blue were my high school colors, coincidentally.

I used the Naked palette for this look and accented with NYX Studio Liquid Liner in Extreme Blue, another cheapy-but-goody product that I love!

Full face product list:

• UD Naked Skin liquid foundation - 5.0
• ELF Clarifying pressed powder - Honey
• Etude House Drawing Eyebrow pencil - gray/brown
• UDPP - Eden
• NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil - Milk
• UD Naked palette
• NYX Studio Liquid Liner - Extreme Blue
• Sugarpill eyeshadow - Velocity (lower lash line)
• ELF liquid eyeliner - black
• Maybelline Full N Soft Waterproof mascara
• Ardell #403 eyelashes
• ELF Studio blush - Twinkle Pink
• Jordana Matte lipstick - Tangerine Tango

Hope everyone's having a fantastic Saturday! It's sunny and warm out right now, but I'm stuck inside all weekend working hard on my grad project. XD

Hugs,

Cat

LORAC Pocket Pro Palette

I've been contemplating purchasing the LORAC Pro Palette, however, I do have two Naked palettes already, and thought that it would be redundant to purchase another nude category palette. I've been curious to compare the quality of LORAC's nude shadows to Urban Decay's however, and was excited when LORAC released their miniature Pocket Pro, which consists of three versatile, nude shades, two shimmers and one matte. It gave me the opportunity to test out the product while only spending $15. Here is a small variety of looks I created solely with shadow colors from my Pocket Pro:

The shadows are pigmented and extremely silky in texture…I almost want to say too silky as they were a little slippery to blend at times. In general, however, I found that they were easy to work with. I like the size of the palette, it's really easy to throw in your bag and go. I almost wish that it came with a double-ended mini brush, but I'm sure that would have upped the price.

I'm pretty happy with my Pocket Pro, I no longer feel the need to invest in the full-sized Pro Palette. This palette definitely gets high marks for portability and pigmentation. It's blendability leaves a little to be desired, I prefer velvety shadow textures. All in all, however, I don't regret buying this little guy.

Hope you found this review helpful! Have a happy Thursday! :)

Hugs,

Cat

NYX Xtreme Lip Cream Swatches: Dolly Girl, Spicy, & Absolute Red

Hello everyone! It seems like a lip swatch kind of day, so I thought I'd share my small collection of NYX Xtreme Lip Creams with everyone this morning. They are described by the company as:

"…not a lipstick nor is it a gloss… a liquid lipstick that goes on with full Xtreme color and intense shine."

Extreme color? Check. Intense shine? Check. They don't feel as emollient as a balm, but they're not drying. They're slightly sticky, but not intolerably so and are fairly resilient, lasting pretty well through 4-5 hours which included eating, drinking, and blotting. I imagine they would last much longer if I were more careful. The only thing that bugs me is the slightly plastic-y smell, but I can overlook it.

 Dolly Girl is a bright, blue-based hot pink which I love even though, according to the rules, this color shouldn't work with yellow undertones. Spicy is a bright, light red with a hint of pink. Absolute red is a deep, vampiric, blood red. Dolly Girl and Spicy applied very smoothly. Absolute Red required a little more work, as the red was extremely intense and pigmented, but the effort to apply was minimal and the results were totally worth it. I ended up wearing Absolute Red all day.

Hope you guys enjoyed the post! Thanks for reading and have a fantastic day!

Hugs,
Cat

EOTD: Royal

Happy Monday, everyone! Just working on editing the video that we filmed yesterday. In the meantime, here's my groovy eye makeup for today, done in regal shades of purple and gold:

I created this look using some new products I picked up from Ulta over the weekend:

Fantastic colors, I'm really diggin' the gold pigment, it's so vibrant! Here is the complete product list for this look:

• Etude House Drawing Eyebrow Pencil in Dark Brown
• UD Primer Potion in Eden
• Maybelline Color Tattoo Cream Eyeshadow in Painted Purple
• UD eyeshadow in Omen
• Ulta gel eyeliner pencil in Golden Egg
• Maybelline Color Tattoo Pure Pigment in Wild Gold
• Maybelline Lasting Drama gel eyeliner
• Ardell #120 eyelashes

I like to layer powder products over cream products in order to intensify the color, which is why you may see duplicate colors in my product list in 2 different mediums.

To balance out the eyes, I simply did peachy cheeks and a nude lip:

Oh, the blush is ELF Studio Blush in Twinkle Pink and lips are NARS Lip Lacquer in Chelsea Girls, btw. :)

Well, back to work! Thanks for reading and have a fantastic afternoon!

Hugs,

Cat

EOTD: Aqua Friday

TGIF everyone! The weather is mighty fine here in the bay area (a sunny 70 degrees), which made me feel like painting my eyes a happy color!

For this look, I used Maybelline Color Tattoo in Edgy Emerald, topped with a matte shade of aqua from my Coastal Scents Original 88 Palette. I did a medium, winged line and partial lower lash liner with Maybelline Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner. I finished with #120 Ardell eyelashes.

This look is simple, fun, and really makes the eyes stand out! Hope everyone is enjoying their Friday so far and is looking forward to a long weekend, like me! (celebrating MLK Day this Monday, no school, yay!)

Hugs,
Cat

Mermaid Nails

Happy new year!

Goodbye 2013, hello 2014! Hope you all rang in the new year fun and safely! :D I wish I had some epic revelation to share with you regarding my 2013…but the only thing that comes to mind at the moment is that I learned that my favorite hues tend toward mint/teal shades. (surprise surprise)

Anyhoo, celebrated today by coating my tips in a shimmery aqua-mint color duo called Sun Shower for Revlon's Sun Candy collection:

I started with a base coat, applied one coat of the creamy color, one coat of the glitter, and finished with a coat of Seche Vite. The cream coat is a little bit on the thickish side and applies slightly unevenly, but the glitter coat covers any imperfections for a visually perfect finish.

Previously, I also got a chance to try out Drops Of Jade from Maybelline's Color Show Polka Dots collection:

For this look, I applied a base coat, one coat of Essie's Turquoise and Caicos, one coat of Drops of Jade, and finished with a coat of Seche Vite. I really loved how I was able to get substantial bits of black and white hexagonal confetti bits in a variety of sizes. Easy to apply and made for a super-cool effect.

And finally, Mint Candy Apple by Essie. Yeah, it's a pretty popular shade and I'm sure I've posted about it before, but I thought it looked really cool paired with my new Kate Spade stripe wallet. Just a gratuitous shot of a rockin' color scheme:

Something about mint, gold, and white…one of my all-time-favorite color combinations!

Happy Wednesday, all! And cheers to a bright 2014! Thanks for reading. :D

Hugs,
Cat

Maybelline Color Elixir

So Maybelline (somewhat) recently released a collection of hybrid lipstick/balm/glosses called Color Elixir. They're supposed to be saturated as lipsticks, hydrating as balms, and shiny like glosses. They come in cute little tubes that resemble lipsticks and are available in a variety of colors. Fairly reasonably priced at about $7-$8 apiece, I decided on three…a bare, a blush, and a bright:

From left to right: Caramel Infused, Blush Essence, and Fuchsia Flourish

Caramel Infused is a warm, pinky-nude with a hint of shimmer. Blush Essence is a cool, shimmery mauve-pink. Fuchsia Flourish is a creamy, bright fuchsia with no shimmer.

I found that Caramel Infused was the perfect, glossy nude lip for my southeast Asian skin tone.

Blush Essence was on the slightly cooler side for my yellow undertones, but gave me a light, Barbie-pink tint without looking outrageous.

Finally, Fuchsia Flourish was a fantastic pop of glossy color that flatters my complexion while being very wearable. Bonus points for getting me compliments at a holiday party I attended!

These are probably my favorite lip colors at the moment. Though not *quite* as saturated as advertised, the colors I purchased were translucent-toward-opaque, especially the Caramel and Fuchsia. They have a wonderful milk chocolate scent and glide on luxuriously with a plush texture that is lightweight and not at all sticky. My lips definitely feel well-moisturized. Lasting power is about average for a saturated gloss, approximately 4 hours…if you're not eating. Let's be realistic; no lip color is going to last through a messy burger! ;)

I would recommend this lip color collection. Though I have so many different lippies to wear, I can't stop using these every day since I've gotten them. (I've had them for about 2 weeks now) They feel great, smell great, look great, and are a bargain compared to other, high-end cosmetic brands.

Hope you found this review helpful and thanks for reading! <3

Hugs,

Cat