EOTD Using My Stash

I apologize for I am way behind on my posts. I got sick last week Tuesday and am finally feeling almost normal today although I still have unexpected and frenetic coughing spasms.

Just prior to getting sick, I had been seeing posts about Tom Ford Emerald Lust eyeshadow quad palette and fell in love with it. Who else has been lemming it? Unfortunately with its high price tag, I wasn't willing to purchase it and thought that perhaps I could rummage through my stash and come up with some similar colors. I haven't seen the quad in person so I wasn't quite sure what the colors look like in actuality. On some blogs it looked more blue and on others it looked more turquoise/green. This picture that I have is from Neiman Marcus website.

Products used:

L'Oreal Infallible Endless Sea
Urban Decay Unhinged (from Vice Palette)
YSL #5 Palette (5 Colour Harmony for Eyes)
Addiction Mystic Mirage
Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill #23
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner
Sephora Glitter Liner
Sephora Mascara
L'Oreal Mascara

 

My substitutes for Emerald Lust

After applying eyeshadow primer, I applied Mystic Mirage to contour area of eyelids. Endless Sea to inner 1/3 of eyelid, Unhinged to middle 1/3 of eyelid and the lighter of the YSL blue eyeshadow to outer 1/3 of eyelid. I also applied very lightly GA ETK #23, which is almost a holographic eyeshadow, over the various blue eyeshadows to blend them together. Since there are micro glitters of blues and greens, it also helps to stay within the color theme of the eyeshadows. K-Palette eyeliner lines the upper lashline and just a smidge in the outer corner of lower lashline, to make a seamless transition from the upper lashline to the lower lashline at that outer corner. Using the darkest blue eyeshadow from YSL, I line the outer half of lower lashline starting at outer corner and fading it in towards the middle. I also use it in the outer V of upper eyelid and blend the color in, emphasizing the outer corners.

To glam it up for an evening out, I added mascara and Sephora silver glitter eyeliner to the inner corner of lower lash line. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get it to show up in the picture well.

 

Sephora Silver Glitter Eyeliner

I could have also used MAC Freshwater and Contrast instead of YSL palette.

All in all, I was pretty happy with my substitutes for Tom Ford's Emerald Lust palette.

I hope that everyone is well and gearing up for the holiday season.

*Kat*

Purchase Review: L'Oreal Lash Serum

It has been a while since I've used any type of lash enhancing product with the last being Trish McEvoy's products. I used to use Talika lipocils but mainly as a way to clean my lashes of any eyeshadow fallout after doing my makeup. Both Talika and Trish McEvoy products are on the pricier side. While I don't have any before and after pictures of Talika use (I started using it before I started beauty blogging), my final post of my Trish McEvoy challenge is here.

I had recently noticed that my lashes were getting sparse so I decided to go the inexpensive route and test out L'Oreal Lash Serum. I can't remember the exact price but it was between $13.00 and $14.00.

I don't wear mascara every day so I wanted to go back to using something that would help to clean my lashes like I did with Talika lipocils. I was going to go back and purchase it but decided on trying L'Oreal instead. The applicator is not a brush like a mascara brush (Talika lipocils has a brush) but is more like a curved doe foot applicator but not as spongey.

I am approaching my 3rd week of use and thought that I'd do a post of the last two weeks. Here are pictures of start, after a week and a half and after 2 weeks.

There is significant change in my lashes already. It looks much fuller and thicker and perhaps a slight bit longer.

Here are pictures of before and after with makeup on.

The before picture is from earlier in the year, July I think. In all the pictures, there is nothing on my lashes, not even the serum.

I must say that I'm significantly impressed by this inexpensive lash serum. I am happy that my lashes are looking fuller, which is what I prefer over length at this point. I use it twice a day, in the morning after I put on my makeup and at night before I go to sleep. In the almost 3 weeks that I've been using it, I forgot to apply it only twice. I'm looking forward to seeing how my lashes will look when I decide to apply mascara on it. I will continue using this for 8 - 10 weeks and continue to post updates.

Has anyone else tried this lash serum? If so, what has been your result?

*Kat*

Purchase Review: e.l.f. 10 Piece Brush Set

While I was shopping at Target last week, I came upon some of the e.l.f. holiday collection sets and picked up a few things that I thought I would give away as inexpensive gifts to some young aquaintances that I have. One of the items that interested me was the 10 Piece Brush Set. I decided to get one for myself and debated whether or not to pick up more but didn't.

The set includes blush brush, foundation brush, brow comb and brush, eyelash and brow wand, eye liner brush, concealer brush, eyeshadow brush, smudge eye sponge, lip defining brush and total face brush. The set was only $10.00 and even though there were several items that didn't interest me in the set, I thought that that was an excellent deal.

Washing your brushes before use is a must so I set aside some time to wash all of these brushes using my trusty and much loved, Daiso Puff and Sponge Cleanser. I noticed that while washing the blush brush and total face brush, they had a very funky scent. It was reminiscent of when I washed the natural animal hair brushes that I own from Crown Brushes. When I laid them out to dry, I tried to reshape them back into the shape it should be but it was to no avail. This is the end result of it after it dried:

Blush Brush:

Total Face Brush:

It's a bit of a disappointment because these were the two brushes that I thought I would make the most use of. The other brushes washed and dried well. I haven't used any of them but I'm sure that they will be fine. I can't be too disappointed though because it was only $10.00 for the set and I'll be using most of the other brushes. I'm just glad that I didn't end up buying any sets to give away.

*Kat*