New Products from NYX - Haute Jersey Leopard Couture Palette

Every time I get an email from a cosmetics company that talks about new products, I freak out a little. I drool over makeup online so much that it's always exciting to have something new to lust over. Today, I got an email about a bunch of new NYX products, and the one that immediately caught my attention was this palette.

I live in New Jersey, so a jersey-guidette-themed palette seriously cracks me up. That being said, the more I look at this thing the more I'm intrigued. The shadows seem nice, if not terribly unique, and I love the leopard-print bronzer! I know it probably gets all messed up after you use it for a while, but it's still seriously cute! The other thing that I adore about this palette is the lip glosses - when I noticed that it included lip gloss, I wasn't too thrilled - I'm not a fan of lip gloss in pans, and I figured this would be another palette that comes with a couple of glosses in little pans that will get gunked up with powder and ignored. But that's not the case - the glosses are in tubes, thank goodness!

At $25 this is definitely a palette I can afford to put on my wishlist. And hey, anything to rep Jersey once I get back to school in Pennsylvania, right?

Check it out here!

XOXO, Ally

Whatever Wednesday: PandAmonium!

Ok, so Wednesday's name sucks. It reminds me of trying to talk to some middle schooler who keeps going "whatEVER!" But it gets the point across nicely - I couldn't think of anything cool for Wednesdays, so I decided to just make it a day for anything. This Wednesday, I decided to base my look off of the album I was listening to at the time - Pandamonium by The White Panda. (It has some wonderful mash-ups, check it out guys!) So I went with a simple black and white lid, then added a pop of color by lining the top with bright green and the bottom with bright pink!

Products Used:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Cottage Cheese
NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Black Bean
e.l.f. Brightening Eye Color Quad in Drama (matte white shade)
Purple/black e.l.f. Eyeshadow Duo from the Smoky Eye Kit (black glitter shade)
Urban Decay's Gunmetal
Urban Decay's Chronic
Rock & Republic Eye Colour in Spy
wet N wild Color Icon Trio in Spoiled Brat (neon pink shade)
NYX Glitter Cream Palette in Paradise (pink glitter)
CoverGirl Lash Blast Mascara

Liplicious Blue Colada Lip Gloss

So for this look, I primed my eyes and then applied the black jumbo eye pencil to the outer corner and the white one to the inner corner. I patted the black e.l.f. shadow over the black pencil and slightly into the crease, and the white shadow over the white pencil and brought it down to the inner corner, and then used Gunmetal to blend the two together. I then took Spy and used it to soften the edges and brought it up to my brow bone. After blending out the shadows, I lined my upper lashes with Chronic wet, and used the pink wet N wild shade on the bottom lash line (wet as well). With a liner brush, I pressed some of the pink glitter cream over the pink liner, then tight-lined my eyes with black and applied mascara and a clear gloss. And then I went to visit my high school marching band! <3

 XOXO, Ally

Colorful Tuesday: Warm Purple

By all means, play it safe for work on Monday, but come Tuesday, I think it's about time to break out the colors! Which is why I've chosen the incredibly uncreative name "Colorful Tuesday" for my Tuesday looks - everything from bright, wacky colors to soft wearable ones will be on Tuesdays! Today's look combines a peachy-orange shade with purples for a warm, purpley eye; it's definitely a more subdued, wearable colorful look, but I promise crazier ones will come!

Products Used:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Cottage Cheese
NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Black Bean
MAC Tweet Me
MAC Stars n Rockets
Urban Decay's Flash
NYX 10 Color Eye Shadow Palette in Strike a Pose (matte brown shade, matte black shade)
wet N wild Color Icon palette in Lust (shimmery cream white shade)
Rock & Republic Eye Colour in Spy
CoverGirl Lash Blast Mascara

e.o.s. Lip Balm in Summer Fruit
e.l.f. Studio Matte Lip Color in Tea Rose

For this look, I primed my eyes with Too Faced Shadow Insurance and then filled in my lid with the NYX pencil in Cottage Cheese. I pressed Tweet Me on top of that, to give the orange-y color a more metallic finish. I blended out the edges with Stars n Rockets and worked that color up slightly onto the brow bone, then placed Flash right into the crease to deepen the purple. I used Spy to blend out the edges of Stars n Rockets, and then highlighted under my eyebrow with the shimmery wet N wild shade. With the NYX pencil in Cottage Cheese again, I applied a little to my inner corner and then covered it with that same wet N wild Shade. I then used the NYX pencil in Black Bean to smudge along my lower waterline and lash line, and set that with the NYX matte black color. On my upper lash line, I smudged the same matte color into the outer quarter of my lash line, and dragged the color slightly upwards. Then I used the matte brown color to finish lining my top lashes. Finally, I curled my lashes and applied mascara.

For my lips, I simply smoothed my e.o.s. lip balm on and then covered that with a layer of the matte lip color. The Tea Rose color actually tones down the natural pigment of my lips, so it helped to focus attention on my eyes, instead of overwhelming my face with too many bright colors.

XOXO, Ally

SFW Monday: Warm Nude

Since I've posting a lot of swatches and reviews lately, and not so many makeup looks, I decided to give each weekday a theme and post a new look based on that theme each day, until I get sick of doing so. Monday is obviously SFW ("safe for work") day, so there will be lots of neutrals and slight hints of color but nothing too flashing or vibrant. As for the other days ... you'll just have to stay tuned this week to find out!

Products Used:
NYX HD Eye Shadow Base
Urban Decay's Toasted
NYX 10 Color Eye Shadow Palette in Strike a Pose (matte brown shade, matte black shade, matte white shade)
Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips Gel Liner for brown eyes (brown shade)
wet N wild Color Icon palette in Lust (matte light pink shade)
CoverGirl Lash Blast Mascara

Revlon Just Bitten Lip Stain in Flame
Hard Candy Glossaholic Lip Gloss in Rise & Shine

To create today's look, I primed my eyes with the NYX primer, then applied Toasted all over my lid. I used the matte brown color mixed with a few dabs of the matte black color from the NYX palette, and placed that in the outer corner and about 3/4 of the way into the crease. Then I lined my top lashline with the brown gel liner, and smudged a touch of the same matte brown shadow beneath my lower lashes. As a highlight, I used the light pink wet N wild color, and applied a touch of the white color from the NYX palette to the inner corner of my eyes. Finally, I curled my lashes and applied mascara to finish the eye look!

For the lips, I used the bright red Revlon lip stain/lip balm and topped it with the sparkly Hard Candy Glossaholic gloss, to liven up my face since my eye look was so neutral. However, you could go with a nude lipstick or clear gloss instead, if you wanted to keep your entire face office-friendly. I'm wearing the blush from the e.l.f. blushed/bronzed duo, which is definitely light and natural enough for work or school - any light peachy will work great with this look!

XOXO, Ally

e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadows - Swatches pt. 2

The second part of my e.l.f. mineral shadow swatches -Earthy, Outdoorsy, Beachy, Wild, Socialite, and Seductive!

See part one of the swatches here and read my review here!

e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadows - Swatches pt. 1

As promised, the first half of the swatches for my e.l.f. mineral shadows - Angelic, Elegant, Sweet, Celebrity, and Royal! (Also, I swatched these on my right arm and then had to take the picture with my left, so I'm sorry that they're a little blurry!)

Check out part two of the swatches here and read my review here!

e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadow - Review

After spending the better part of the afternoon making vain attempts to purchase anything from the NYX anniversary sale, I finally gave up and decided to review and swatch my e.l.f. mineral shadows instead. I have a bunch of these - e.l.f. had a "buy X amount of stuff, get 10 mineral shadows free" deal a while back - so I figured I'd review them in one post, and then swatch them in the next two posts, for the sake of my sanity.




Golden is the color that I've used the most, so this review is mostly based on that particular shade, although the others all seem to perform similarly. (And if anyone is curious, I like to apply it wet all over my lid, then blend out the edges with a matte black and smudge a little black into the outer corner and lashline - you get a gorgeous gold smokey eye!)

I love the packaging on these - the matte black lid is definitely reminiscent of MAC or bare minerals products, and it looks very sleek and professional. It's definitely much better quality than the packaging of the essentials line, which is to be expected but still nice. These can be used dry or wet, but I tend to use them wet and just pat a little dry powder on top to set them and help blend them out. The pigmentation is very nice, and you can get tons of color without having to use tons of product. I also like how the shadow looks different whether you use it wet or dry - it doesn't just get slightly more intense, it goes from frosty when dry to totally metallic when wet.

The one big problem I had with these shadows was the fallout. Even when I was just applying it to my arm to swatch it, I had bits of eyeshadow everywhere. I know that fallout is to be expected with a loose shadow, but there seemed to be a lot more of it. That's not a reason not to pick up a few shades of this shadow, though, considering all of its other strong points and the fact that it goes for a mere $3 on the e.l.f. website. This one definitely impressed me!

Rating: 4.5/5

Check out part one of the swatches here and part two here!