Kat Von D Serpentina Palette - Review, Swatches, Face of the Day

Purchased at Sephora.

Contains an affiliate link.

The Serpentina Palette from Kat Von D is a classic case of "I want to love you."

Swatched on clean, un-primed but moisturized skin.

Without a doubt, it's s stunner. Kat Von D's branding is unique and instantly recognizable, and yet it also clearly evokes the theme of Ancient Egypt. If I'm to nitpick anything, it's the bulkiness of the packaging, especially in comparison to her other palettes. I get that it was done to accommodate the pigment jar, but I wish they'd thought of a more elegant solution - especially since that jar also means that the palette is best stored flat, or risk having gold pigment get everywhere.

The shades are stunning, as well - brilliant jewel tones and murky, glittery earth tones. One could quibble about the lack of transition shades, but that's a lazy criticism. Chances are, if you're buying a palette with this kind colour range, you're not the type of beauty junkie with a dearth of browns and taupes and camels in your collections.

They look good. Really, really good. I just wish they were as easy to apply.

Bloodmilk is the one I was most concerned about. I knew going in that vegan eyeshadow formulations could be especially challenged by red tones, but this one hit it out of the park. Over a primer, the colour packs on true to pan, and blends out without a hitch. And it looks GOOD. I always think of red as the kind of shade that best suits blue or green eyes (and an otherwise youthful countenance), but there's something about this particular shade that doesn't make me look a couple of decades too old to be indulging in all-nighters.

Medusa and Ankh have the kind of micro glitter that makes the eyeshadow feel a bit gritty, and difficult to blend out. Medusa is the smoother of the two, with a dirty gold base colour that is just beautiful. I wish they were a satin (or metallic) formulation.

Queen and Hieroglyph, on the other hand, are smooth, creamy, densely pigmented and very easy to work with. Hieroglyph has a slightly flakier texture, but I didn't find it to impact application.

Nile is the biggest disappointment. An incredible rich blue in the pan, it has a dense but crumbly texture when swatched, and applied choppily, with heavy fallout. It's a serious pain to blend out as well.

Scarab has a similar texture and application to Queen and Hieroglyph, and is a stunning colour to boot.

Venom has a texture similar to Bloodmilk, but doesn't build up as well. Like many purples (especially mattes), it tends to look dusty and faded on the lid. As a crease shade, though, it's workable.

Prophet is my second favourite shade from the palette - a rich old gold with a hint of green, that can be used as a glimmer wash all over the lid when applied dry, or as a burnished metallic highlight when applied damp.

These are the two looks I was able to create using this palette.

Here I used Nile and Scarab on the lid and lower lash line, with a halo and inner corner highlight courtesy of Prophet. I also used the cooler tones from the Shade + Light Eye Contour Palette for the crease, lash line blending and transition.

For the warmer look, I used Bloodmilk in the crease, Ankh on the lash line, Queen in the outer corner, Hieroglyph through the middle and Prophet in the inner corner, mirrored in the lash line. Again I pulled the warmer tones from Shade + Light for the transition and blending out. 

I think the end results are pretty and surprisingly wearable, but the blue look especially was a challenge. For 57$ CAD, I want a palette that's not only beautiful, but a dream to work with - and this is not that.

That said, I'm loath to return it, because, for some reason, it still speaks to me.

And now that I think of it, maybe being gorgeous but demanding is somehow perfectly appropriate for a palette that so strongly evokes the spirit of Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra. ;)

Makeup Declutter 2016: Lip Gloss

Makeup Declutter 2016: Single Eyeshadows, Mascara, Eye Primer

Makeup Declutter 2016: Foundation, Concealer, Primer, Liquid Highlighter

Declutter 2016: Drugstore Palettes

First bit!

Makeup Purge - First Pass Declutter

Since my last post on decluttering my lip products, I've gone ahead with all the categories in my collection. I knew, going through it, that it was only a preliminary declutter, and that I would really need to sit down and make some harder choices, but it was a good place to start.

This is a quick overview of the result.

Lorac Summer 2014 Collection - SummerGLO Palette, Alter Ego Lipsticks, 3D Lustre/Liners

When you love a brand, you really want to give every one of their products a fair shake. Lorac is one of those brands for me. Their palettes have consistently hit the top tier of favoured products, and I've collected them since I started getting into makeup. Their eyeshadow formula is consistently terrific.

Which is why I was sad that the items I picked up from their Summer releases didn't wow me like I had expected.

First out, the SummerGLO Eyeshadow Palette (24$ USD).

From the packaging to the shade selection, this looks like a great little summertime palette. It's sleek, small enough to be portable, but with a nice range of neutral and vibrant pastel colours.

The Good:

In terms of performance, the neutral shades are the best of the bunch. They have a smooth, silky texture that applies smoothly and blends out well. They also have a faint sheen that puts them somewhere between a matte and a satin - they read matte, but not flat. The coral peach shade is slightly sheerer, but has a similarly good performance.

The Meh:

The shimmery golden beige in the middle of the palette has a bit of a thicker texture, so it's not as smooth to apply or blend. The light brown with micro glitter really doesn't adhere well to the brush, and the glitters tends to go everywhere. The purple is beautiful, with a slight duochrome finish, but is much sheerer and needs to be packed on. The teal has tiny glitters that don't really transfer, and a more powdery texture.

The biggest problem for me with this palette was the way the eyeshadows blended, in that they did so really, really easily. Lorac eyeshadows are known for being easy to blend out, but they generally also have a fairly buttery texture that allows them to still adhere well to the lid. The texture with these is less buttery, more silky smooth, and it seems like they have less grip. I had to be careful to not over blend, or risk them disappearing altogether. The matte(ish) neutrals generally held up better, while the shimmer shades needed to be packed on to a sticky base on order to show up vibrantly, and they tended to fade out really easily. The teal shade was the worst, possibly because of that more powdery texture. As soon as my crease brush touched it, it blew away, and it wandered above my crease throughout the day as my eyelid moved, doing its usual eyelid-y things.

Overall, I think it's a decent, workable palette with some good shades, but it's one that requires some careful  application and help from a primer or cream base. It's just not what I expected based on previous experience.

Lorac also debuted their new range of reformulated lipsticks - Alter Ego (16$ USD) - and all I can say is....why?

These are a total misfire. I can't fathom how a brand that's been in the game for this long - with an MUA at the helm, no less - thought that this formula was a good idea. I can understand when a brand like MAC slips up something in RnD, since they release eleven billion collections a month, but if you're specifically revamping your signature lipsticks, why would you engineer them to be this unflattering? I suspect they were so focused on getting intense pigment (which these can definitely claim), that they didn't balance it adequately with comfort of wear and texture.

Alter Ego lipstick: Goddess, Nymph, Girl Next Door

Alter Ego lipstick: Goddess, Nymph, Girl Next Door

The Alter Ego lipsticks have a silicone-heavy matte finish. These are not only not hydrating, they give me troll mouth - desiccated, wrinkly, flaky. If you're determined to wear them, arm yourself with an exfoliating scrub and a ton of lip balm, then dab the product on and blend in as best you can. Maybe light a candle and offer up a prayer. (Ok, not that bad, but still. With all the fabulous products out there, why spend good money on a product that requires significant effort?)

I think the pale ones are especially problematic, as their chalky finish exacerbates the textural issues. The deeper shade I tried, Goddess, was better overall, so potentially the deeper shades in the line are worth investigating. The way my lips felt dried out after wearing these, however, doesn't incline me to trying more of them out.

On the plus side, the colours I've tried are really pretty.

Alter Ego lipstick: Goddess, Nymph, Girl Next Door

They look nice swatched, right?

LIES. HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE LIES.

Not so Nymph-y.

Goddess is the better one. And yet my lips still look like I've been sucking on the bitterness of life.

And onto a product that is merely a little problematic as opposed to cringe-inducing - the 3D Lustre/Liners (19$ USD).

These are a two-in-one liquid liner, with one side featuring a near-black shade, the other a metallic shimmer shade in a light, complimentary colour.

3D Lustre/Liners: Copper Lustre/Black Cherry Liner and Amethyst Lustre/Black Berry Liner

3D Lustre/Liners: Amethyst Lustre/Black Berry Liner and Copper Lustre/Black Cherry Liner

The Liner portion is great! The brush applicator is thin, flexible but firm enough for excellent control and the ability to create a fine point. The formula is lovely as well, long-wearing and smudge-proof, yet not a pain to remove at the end of the day. The finish is somewhat glossy, and a little shimmery. I also like the different undertones (purple and burgundy here) which are a nice option to pure black.

The Lustre ends are less of a hit, as the texture is thicker, which makes getting a precise line more difficult. They tended to going patchy upon application, requiring a few passes and then sometimes balling up upon further application. (You can see in the swatch above of the Amethyst Lustre.) They work better dabbed over the eyelid with a finger than used strictly as a liner. Applied like that, they are beautifully sparkly and iridescent, and I do like them used this way. As a measure of how they are packaged and meant to be applied, though, I think they fall short of the liner end.

So.

Overall, a little disappointed, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that the Pro Palette 2 will be return to the fine form of previous Lorac releases.

If you're curious, I also have a video review here:



Have you guys tried any of these? What do you think? (They're hard to get here in Canada, though www.naimies.com will ship to us.)

(I purchased these items.)

Pre-Holiday Haul - Part 1 (Sephora VIB and FF)

I may have gone a little crazy, but the constant discount codes and free shipping conspired against me. :P

My Makeup Room

It's taken nearly two years since the initial planning stages, but my ultimate dream boudoir is now complete. YOU GUYS. I am so happy I could fall over! I literally spent half an hour last weekend just sitting on the couch, absorbing how much I love it. :D

Kudos, as always, go to my man. He built the room from scratch, painted it, assembled all the furniture, hung all the fixtures, made the jewelry board and the nail polish racks, and generally bore all my insane demands with tremendous patience and good humour. He is literally the best guy out there. *smooshes*

I'll do some breakdown posts of the actual makeup storage/organization in the coming months, as part of my collection series. (There is also a video linked at the end of this post that goes into more detail.) For now, this is a general overview of how the room itself is set up.

Coming into the room from the office next door...

The door between the rooms is a sliding French door, so when it's closed it still lets a nice amount of light in. The frames above the couch contain some prints from one of my favourite artists, Alphonse Mucha. I really wanted to have a little nook in here, a place to escape the world and rest in a little bubble of pretty.

Immediately to the left of the couch...

This is a little book nook - not my entire book collection, just those on the topics of religions, spirituality and mythology, as well as some fun, trashy mass markets. My lovely vintage sewing machine has a place of honour below the jewelry board (which is a repurposed cover to the electrical panel). The knobs are all from Anthropologie.

And then on the right of the couch...

This is where the makeup area begins. Most of the storage furniture in this room comes from the Besta and Alex collections from Ikea, as they are the least expensive and most customizable systems I've found for storing and organizing a collection like this.

The lamp on the drawer unit by the sofa is a custom-built item that my mother got for me for my birthday a couple of years ago. She knew we were building this room, and wanted to get me something unique, that would fit the theme. The design is a stylized peacock done in a Tiffany-style lampshade, and it is just the most beautiful thing I own. She surprised me completely, and I literally burst into tears when I opened the box. LOVE IT.

And then the rest of the makeup storage...

Drawers full of makeup! Like binders! I'll do posts later on about how I organize those. There would be too many pictures in one post, otherwise.

Also another bookcase, this one for my makeup, fashion and perfumery books. Both sides have these custom nail polish racks attached.

And if you're interested, this is the video:

And so yes. Much happiness. :D

My week in Youtube - Haul, Drugstore Lip Palette and Perfume Collection

I just posted a youtube video featuring my most recent acquisitions. Can I just say that the Revlon Super Lustrous Lipsticks are by far my favourite drugstore lipsticks? The cream finish ones, anyway. Also, if you're keen to see me almost have a coronary due to a makeup mishap...




If you like to travel with multiple lip options but don't have room for 7 tubes of lipstick, this drugstore version of a lip palette might be an option for you. Also works for those annoying little last bits of lipstick, where you want to throw out the tube but don't want to waste the product.




And then there's my perfume collection. Yeah. (Of course, I completely forgot to include one of the clips, so my Arcana perfumes box is missing.)

Nail Polish Storage - Video

I don't know about you, but I haaaaaate those acrylic nail polish racks. You know, the ones that are wall-mounted, and look like they belong in a nail salon? They're practical, but not exactly the aesthetic I tend to go for.

Up until now I've been storing my polishes in my Alex units, but I really wanted to have some kind of storage that allowed me to see at least part of my collection in a way that was both functional (thus encouraging me to use more things more frequently) and more visually appealing.

When I was in New York this past weekend, A. built it. And it is AWESOME.

A rack holds less than a drawer does, unfortunately, so the majority of my polishes still need to be stored in the Alex unit - but I like that I can see them more easily this way.

The 20$ Makeup Challenge

If you've been reading this blog you may have noticed that I tend to feature higher-end brands. That's not because I disdain drugstore makeup, or don't use it. I think there a lot of really fantastic cosmetics available at the drugstore (or via inexpensive online brands), many of which I consider my personal staples or that I use on other people when I do their makeup.

I do tend to focus on the higher-end brands because those are often the items that people want the most information about, and do the most research on. I mean, a foundation fail at 6$ is far easier to swallow than one at 45$. And expensive makeup tends to be prettier makeup, as far as presentation is concerned, which does make it more fun to blog about.

That said, I love my drugstore gems, and I couldn't resist this challenge when I saw it popping up on youtube. It's especially interesting to do in Canada, simply because we have both higher prices (foundation averages 10$ - half the budget!) and fewer options (no ELF, for example, except in some dollar stores).

If you're not familiar with the tag, the idea is to imagine that you're traveling and have somehow lost your luggage, including your makeup, and you have 20$ (not including tax) to spend at your average drugstore to create a full face. Some youtubers have also tailored the tag to "what to get if you only have 20$ to start your makeup collection". (To my mind, the latter idea is not something the original concept overlaps with particularly well. What you get in an emergency to do a full face is not what I would spend my money on if I wanted to start building a collection. I'm debating a video series devoted to that idea however - like if you could only spend a set amount every month, how would you go about getting the best budget basics over a year.)



I did have fun with this challenge, but I'm not sure how well I succeeded in creating a legitimate look. The foundation was definitely the most difficult thing to get right, as I was limited to three options if I wanted to stay on-budget and using regularly-priced items. A setting powder would have been nice, but there was just no way to work another 5-6$ into the budget.

Omitting brushes was the easiest part. Good brushes will make application easier and more polished, certainly, but at the end of the day, your hands are the most versatile tool.

What I ended up using, coming in at 19.86$:

Rimmel Clean Finish Foundation in Soft Beige 5.97$

Wet'n'Wild 8-pan Palette in Comfort Zone 4.64$

Rimmel Extra Super Lash Mascara in Black 4.48$

NYC Ultra Last Lipwear in Mousse 1.77$

Nobel 1/4 Angled Synthetic Brush 3$

I wasn't super impressed with the foundation. The coverage is a little too light (though if I had a concealer it would be ok), and the texture is difficult to work with. Because of the high silicone content, it's a little thick and dries really fast, making blending tricky. Rimmel claims it creates a poreless finish, but I found the opposite to be true once the skin's natural oils started coming through. It's not a bad foundation, and for the price alone worth considering, but I don't think it will play nicely on a lot of skin types.

The mascara was just ok. It was a staple for my years ago, but now I find it lacklustre. Not enough volume for me. It is, however, resistant to smudging, so if you prefer a natural look it's worth looking at.

The clear winners for me were the WnW palette and the NYC lipstick. The palette is just so versatile and a terrific value for the price. The shadows are soft and pigmented. I do wish there was a matte shade or two in there, and that the texture was a little less thin - it can be prone to wiping away easily as you're trying to blend - but those are minor complaints compared to all the pluses.

Wet'n'Wild Comfort Zone.
Left to right: Browbone shade from the neutral side, browbone shade from the greenish side,
eyelid shade, crease shade, definer shade (MAC Club dupe)

The lipstick is a great formula as well. Unlike a lot of cheaper lipsticks, it doesn't feel greasy on the lips, and has no smell or taste. The range of colors is good, and it really does wear for  4-6 hours, while feeling comfortable.

NYC Mousse. 

The palette and the lipstick I would buy again, and recommend as good budget investments for the makeup beginner.

I know there was a fad a while back of using artist brushes to replace MAC ones. The Loew-Cornell mop brush, I believe, was touted as a dupe for the MAC 239. I bought one, but didn't find it lived up to the original. I did come across a treasure trove of synthetic liner brushes of various shapes and sizes, and absolutely love those. If you use cream liner, getting a bunch of those for a couple of bucks a pop and rotating them is far more user-friendly than cleaning the same crusty brush over and over.

So yes, a really interesting challenge for me, and hopefully it's entertaining and useful to others!

(I purchased all the items at Wal-Mart.)

Melt-Proofing Summer Makeup - Skin Basics - Video

As someone on Twitter recently mentioned the trouble they were having with their makeup sliding off their face (thank you, Montreal heatwave), I thought this might be useful.




And if you like dogs, you'll enjoy the outtake clip at the end of the video. =)

Makeup used:

Dermalogica Clearing Mattifier
Lancome Teint Idole Buff 210 and Teint Miracle foundations Bisque 1N
MAC Mineralize Concealer NC20 (*squinty stare of death*)
MUFE HD Microfinish Blush #6
Kevyn Aucoin Celestial Powder
Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Powder
MUFE Matte Loose Powder
MAC Beauty Powder Blush in Joyous
MAC Structural Brown Paint
Lorac Cocoa and Capuccino eyeshadow
Smashbox Waterproof Pencil in Luminous Fig
Buxom Lash Mascara
Fresh Honey Lip Treatment
NYX Pinky Lipliner

Makeup Storage and Organization - Video

A quick look at my Girl Cave/Boudoir. Let me know if you want to see something in more detail - I can do a picture post, or more specific videos if you prefer.

Lancome Teint Miracle - Video Review and Application

I was on a roll yesterday. =)

My first Youtube video! Montreal Sephora Haul

Ok, so I've decided to dip my toes into the wild world of Youtube. It's pretty much terrifying. I am also the least tech-savvy person on the planet, so I have A LOT to learn.

That said, here is my first attempt. It was filmed with my iPhone, and is viewable in HD formats. The sound is a bit low, so you will likely need to adjust the volume (working on that).

Please let me know what you think - I greatly appreciate comments and feedback, especially if you also post on Youtube. (I have a review video uploading now, so hopefully I should be able to get that up later today as well.)