Too Faced Joy to the Girls Eye Shadow Palette 2013 Holiday Collection Review and Swatches. HD Photos and Video!

***UPDATE***

After having the palette and using it daily for a week or so, so I could try out every single eye shadow, I ended up returning the palette. While I LOVED the colors (and packaging!) and some of the shades were amazing, several of the shades (such as Prancer, Sugar Plum and Yule Log) were completely unusable. They swatched beautifully, but did not wear well AT ALL. Even over primer they'd crease (horribly) and my biggest peeve - and what prompted me to return it- was if you tried to apply some of the shades, you first had to build up like crazy (hello fallout city!) and if you tried to build it DISAPPEARED. Completely. I was really sad to return this; it was an early birthday gift and I was super happy to get it. I posted an originally positive review due to the fact that some of the shades were excellent (snow angel, mulberry, cookie dough come to mind) and created beautiful looks. As a disclaimer I swatched all the shades and wore several before giving my review, and I stand by that portion. In the interest of the holiday season I wanted to post my review in a timely fashion, so I didn't wait to wear ALL the shades. I've learned my lesson and in the future I will wait to wear all shades first. I hope this helps! Honesty is my #1 goal, and trying to help people so I had to update my review.

Best wishes,

Elisabeth

Hey Everyone,

I know it's a bit early - but I'm already gearing up for Christmas and New Year's - I'm prepared to sacrifice Thanksgiving to get there. 

In keeping with this mad dash towards the holidays, my wonderful family gave me an early birthday gift (December baby over here!) and it is the Too Faced Joy to the Girls Eye Shadow Palette from the 2013 Holiday Collection. I love it! Listed below is an in-depth review on each shade, the packaging, price, ideas for looks, and my general thoughts on the palette. I also filmed a review video with live and finished swatches, as well as a makeup tutorial using this palette! Please feel free to leave thoughts or questions below, I always answer back!

Best wishes
<3 & :)
Talktoyoulaterloveyoubye

Elisabeth

Packaging:

Cardboard material. Thicker and taller than the average palette. Slightly bulky and impractical for travelling/storage. Magnetic closure. Gold polka dots on an aqua background. Pattern design by celeb. decorator Mary McDonald.

Price: 

$46 dollars. $275.00 value.

Available:

Wherever Too Faced is sold!

Shades:

Cookie Dough: Matte light brown with warm undertones. Opaque, blendable and the perfect transition color.

Cheers: Metallic Mauve with micro-shimmer. Opaque, blendable and a lovely lid color. 

Prancer: Glittery bronze gold. Chunkier formula and harder to apply. Some fall out. Beautiful color though.

Sugar Plum: Plum with gray undertones and silver glitter. Opaque, beautiful color for the outer third of the eye. Glitter kind of disappears when applied though.

Mulberry: Darker matte brown with reddish-purple undertones. Pigmented, smooth and a wonderful crease color.

Snow Angel: Matte vanilla cream. Pigmented, smooth and creamy, perfect base and highlight color.

Powdered Sugar: Matte nude with pink undertones. Pigmented, blendable and a great base/highlight shade.

Too Too: Girly pink with iridescent shimmer glitter. Fairly opaque, but another one where the glitter seems to vanish when applied to the lid.

Yule Log: Rich chocolate brown with loads of bronze shimmer glitter. Opaque and easy to blend, but the glitter vanishes when applied. WTH??

Chestnut: Medium cocoa brown with micro-frost. Easy to blend and great for a lid color or as a transition color. 

Twinkle: Metallic old gold. Fairly opaque and a beautiful lid color for an evening out or the holiday season.

Joy: Aqua pool blue with micro-pearl frost. Opaque and easy to blend. Great color for the lid or as an inner highlight.

Spike the Punch: Baby pink with golden micro-shimmer. Great as a highlight or for a subtle hint of shimmer on the lid.

Chimney: Slate color with a beautiful blue-grey sheen. Opaque and blendable. Very versatile color, can be used on the crease, lid, to deepen up a look or as a liner.

Coal: Matte black with grey-brown undertones. Fairly opaque and easy to blend. 

The palette comes with:

Three look idea cards.

One full-sized LashGasm mascara.

Mascara:

Personally not my favorite. I found the formula to be a bit tacky and cause my lashes to stick together. It's an obvious looking mascara. 

Overall thoughts:

On the whole, I'm very happy with the palette. Over primer the shadows last all day with no problems or creasing. Almost every shadow is a hit and it gives you a huge range of looks to create. A good blend of mattes, shimmers and glitters. Lots of neutrals and every day colors, as well as a couple of fun shades and party ready shades. 

Don't Forget to Check Out my video review and Makeup Tutorial!!! Thanks! :)

Makeup Tutorial

Review

Pixi Soft Focus Fresh Palette

Full Review Here!

Swatches!! 

Anastasia Beverly Hills Illumin8 Eye Shadow Palette: Review and Tutorial

Hey Everyone,

I recently purchased the Anastasia Beverly Hills Illumin8 Eye Shadow Palette in the shade #3 Milky Way. I am in love with this palette!

Details, swatches and tutorial are below. 

Where to buy: Sephora and Anastasia. E-Bay and Amazon have a few, but not all and the prices are full-priced or higher. 

Price: Normally $30.00 at Sephora and Anastasia, but I found it for $13 at my Nordstrom Rack. 

FYI: Out of the 5 Illumin8 eye shadow palettes, my Nordstorm Rack had 4, for the duos they had 3 out of the 4 available and they also had the seen and be seen beauty kit. All of these shadows are currently for sale full-priced at Sephora and Anastasia!!! This is not old merchandise so if you're interested check it out!  
Full price the duos are $23, at NR they are around $10. The see and be seen kit sells for $43 full-price and is available for around $16 at NR. 

Product Details: Easy to blend, super long wearing even without a base. I've been wearing it for 10-12 hours straight in July heat without creasing. Easy to apply, intensely pigmented but not overwhelming on the eye.

Claims: The product's main claim is to make your eyelids look more youthful. As my upper eyelids don't have too many wrinkles yet (oh but my under eyes do! Eek!) I asked my mom to come try it out. She never wears eye makeup anymore - mostly due to the fact that she's too busy and too pretty to need it- but she graciously allowed me to slap some on her face. It really seems to work! If you have more mature skin or premature wrinkles, I would highly recommend this eye shadow. It glides on top of the skin without creasing or settling into fine lines. And it doesn't feel heavy or greasy at all on the lid. 
I also checked out the reviews on Sephora/etc. 4 1/2 stars out of 5 and many positive reviews from women who are 50/60+ years of age.

Before and after photo of my model :) 

I used to lightest shade from the palette all over the lid.

She is lifting her eyebrow slightly in the photo on the right just to allow the shadow to show up. In person though, you can really see a difference in the wrinkling on the lid. 

From Top Left to Bottom Right:Natural indoor lighting. Without primer.
Maybelline Color Tattoo in Barely Beige and Silver Strike
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Photo on the left: Outdoors full sun. Photo on the right: Natural indoor lighting
Swatches from top to bottom: Top: Over Too Faced Shadow Insurance. 
Middle: Over Silver Strike.
Bottom: Without Primer.  

Photo on the Left: Natural indoor lighting. Photo on the right: Outdoors full sun
 Top: Over Too Faced Shadow Insurance.
Middle: Over Barely Beige.
Bottom: Without primer.

Colors from left to right:

Light silver grey taupe satin

Medium steel gray with silver glitter

Satin teal/peacock blue

Matte blackened cherry

Jet black with heavy iridescent silver glitter

My Tutorial using the palette. Click to see the shadows in action! 

All in all I am very happy with my purchase. I've worn this palette every day since I got it and I've been able to create a multitude of looks with it. I'd like to get another one with more neutrals in it, but I have been able to use this as a day look and I think it's especially great for night time looks. 

Have you ever tried anything from this brand? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments!!

Best wishes,

Elisabeth 

One Brand Review: Rimmel

Hey Everyone, today's 'One Brand Review' is on Rimmel London. I don't own a lot of their products and I just started buying from them this Spring. Even as a newbie to their company - I love every single product I have. I have not been disappointed yet. That is 100% my own opinion. Trust me, this blog doesn't get enough hits to interest any company enough to pay me! Which keeps me honest right? :) 

The products:

In the interest of full disclosure: I don't wear foundation. I did embrace my photo editing touch up feature to cover up a couple of bumps. And I messed around with focal blur for fun. Now some of these pictures look like something out of a bad 80's magazine. *Sigh* Still learning.

Lasting Finish Matte by Kate Moss for Rimmel Lipsticks in 101 and 105. Price: Around $5.

101: Is a creamy matte, soft pink nude. While matte, it does not feel drying at all. If anything it almost feels a little greasy and gritty, but I can live with that. It doesn't dry my lips out, smells like candy, is a beautiful color and even the packaging is adorable. *FYI: This color has been lauded as a MAC dupe for several different MAC lipsticks.

105: Is a matte, rose brown. It is a gorgeous shade that I think is very sexy and works really well as a throwback shade. It reminds me of Bridgette Bardot circa 1970's. Very easy to wear and makes teeth look whiter. Also smells like candy!

Lasting Finish by Kate Moss for Rimmel Lipsticks 

10: Is an intense cherry red. Very pin-up girl. I tend to pat it on to sheer it out and put a glossier red on top, but if you want vintage pin-up, this is it! Microscopic red glitter, but it does not show up on the lip. Again, makes your teeth whiter and smells like cherry candy. Yum!

17: Is a softer, 'my lips, but better' pink with a brown undertone. This shade has more glitter than the others, but still has that distinctive candy scent. Can you tell I like that feature?

Rimmel Stay Glossy Lipgloss

050 Unlimited Gold: This is a smooth, glossy golden beige color that you can sheer out as a topcoat to another lip color or build up for a golden gleam. I like it to create a glossy, shimmery beige nude lip or as a topcoat to make my lips look fuller. Smells like makeup.

Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal

001 Black: The name has it all. Jet black, creamy and long-wearing. Oh and inexpensive. Put down the high-end pencils ladies and try this one out! I highly recommend it. And if you don't like, please don't hurt me! It didn't cost that much! :)

004 Taupe: How did I live without this? Overly dramatic question perhaps, but seriously! I use it all the time and for everything. It's creamy, glitter-free taupe that's perfect to use as a eyeliner (mostly along my lower lash line for subtle definition) as an eyebrow pencil and in a pinch, eye shadow.

007 Turquoise: A shimmering blue. Great for a pop of color. An inexpensive alternative to Urban Decay or MAC bright eye liners.

Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara: A great mascara for a flirty, doll-like effect with long, defined lashes. It won't build your lashes up into caterpillars, but it will give you prettier looking lashes.

I see you.

Rimmel Match Perfection Concealer: It's amazing. Full review here 

Overall I think Rimmel does a great job of producing high quality products that perform very well, at really inexpensive prices! What do you think of the brand? Do you have a favorite product from them? Let me know in the comments! :) I'd love to try out some other things from them. 

Best wishes,

Elisabeth 

One Brand Review: Too Faced

Hey Everyone,

Today's one brand review is on the products I have from Too Faced. Overall I like the brand. It was my number one makeup brand for a few years, pretty much when I was just really getting into makeup. As I've explored other companies, it's slipped a little from number one. I still like it and use many of the products I own, however I have not purchased a new item from them in many years.

The company:

I like their principal - they don't test on animals, which I like. As someone how currently has four rescue mutts that I love dearly and volunteers (when I get the chance and not often enough!) at an animal shelter, I do support that.

They also have this adorable girly, cutesy packaging to all their products. It can be a little impractical for travel, etc, but it is really cute.

I have found that while I really like the company, the products - at least the ones I have- don't amaze me when I compare them to others. The lip glosses are cute, but not something I'd repurchase. The eye shadows I have are amazing colors and I love them, however they aren't super pigmented and I cannot get them to last all day on me. The blush and eyeliners are fine, but I have others that do a better job.

The end result:

Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing on Too Faced. I probably own more from this one company than any other, but I've found other products that I love more or work just as well for me at a better price. I bought most, if not all, of these items on clearance and I enjoy what I have. I just don't reach for it as often as I'd like.

 = Personal favorites!

The Products:

Galaxy Glam Baked Eye Shadow

 Moon Beam - swirled royal blue, black and white

Amber Asteroid - swirled brown and gold

Deep Space - swirled emerald, black and white

Swatches are shown with both wet and dry application.

Pinch My Petals Blush - Pinky-Mauve with grey undertones. Almost Invisible light gold shimmer

 Shadow Insurance - Invisible

 Perfect Eyes Waterproof Eyeliner

 Perfect Storm - grey-black with silver glitter

Glamour to Go II (2) 

These shadows don't seem to have a name so quick rundown:

The bottom shadow on my arm is the upper left shadow in the palette. Sorry I didn't do a better job defining what's what! Below that are the four lip glosses and the last photo is of the blush!

This is what happens when it falls out of your luggage from the top shelve of a closet! Whoops!!

Liquif-Eye Shadow Collection: From Upper Left to Bottom Right:

1/2 Ooh & Aah: Charcoal grey with silver glitter

1/2 Ooh & Aah: Silver Satin

Exclusive: Bright shimmering turquoise 

1/2 Full Frontal: Shimmering bronze

1/2 Boy Toy: Slightly shimmering pink rose

1/2 Steel Magnolias: Shimmering citron green 

Oscar: Slightly shimmering light peach

Exclusive: Moss green with almost invisible shimmer

Exclusive: Bright blue-based purple

Vixen: Shimmering grey with purple tones

1/2 Fantasy Island: Shimmering Mermaid sea foam green 

Exclusive: Matte charcoal black 

 Eye Shadow Duo: 

Sexpresso and Peach Fuzz - sheer peach with lots of gold glitter and matte chocolate brown 

Girls Dig Pearls Lip Gloss:

 Shell - light pink with iridescent, duo-chrome pink, purple and iridescent white shimmer

Mirror Shine Lip Gloss:

 Damn I'm Hot - Sheer red creme gloss

Smoky Eye: From Upper Left to Bottom Right:

Cream: Matte cream color

Fawn: Slightly shimmering taupe

Bronze: Slightly shimmering golden brown

Sugar Cookie: Satin beige

Wicked Green: Slightly shimmering emerald

Midnight: Slightly shimmering navy

Black Suede: Matte black

Black Spark: Charcoal grey with silver shimmer

Silver: Silver satin

Naked Eye:

In the buff - matte cream 

Pillow talk - pale taupe with tiny silver shimmer 

Like a virgin - matte medium brown taupe 

Birthday suit - light beige with silver shimmer

Satin sheets - light pink satin with a duo-chrome gold reflect 

Unmentionables - Charcoal grey with silver glitter 

Pink cheeks - pale pink with white iridescent shimmer 

Lap dance - a darker taupe satin with plummy grey undertones. Very unique. 

Stiletto - matte jet black  

What is your favorite makeup company? What company do you have the most products from? What do you think of Too Faced? Let me know in the comments!!

Best wishes,

Elisabeth <3