Category: Makeup

Posted in Beauty, Makeup

Eyeshadow Update: Too Faced Chocolate Bar

Posted on by Cher_Squared

I haven’t done an eyeshadow update since June! My work schedule changed which allowed me less time to work on my reviews and updates but I think the progress I’ve made on the Chocolate Bar palette will make up for it.

Progress

Below is a comparison between June and early September. You see all that glorious pan?? I’m really pleased with my progress. I do have to note that I got really irritated with Milk Chocolate so I poked it. While you can see the pan for that shade, it’s from the Great Impatient Poking not from use.

How I’ve Been Using It

I focused on a group of shades until I hit pan until I was happy with the amount of pan and then moved on to another shade. Strawberry Bon Bon and Milk Chocolate got on my nerves. Strawberry Bon Bon because it’s such a light shade and I wasn’t using it because it hardly showed up. I ended up using Strawberry Bon Bon to set my eyelid primer. It did give a slight pink tint but it wasn’t noticeable in the end result.

Milk Chocolate … I have been using that shade five days a week since June and I haven’t legitimately hit pan. As I mentioned above, I got impatient and poked it with a de-potting tool to see how much more product I had left before the pan showed. I still have plenty of product to go. I will pan that blasted shade. I will!

Next Up

I’ve recently been playing around with Triple Fudge, Amaretto, and Cherry Cordial. I would like to hit pan on one or two more shades before moving on to another palette or some de-potted shades (which I have many of). I just purchased two ColourPop palettes so I’m very excited to get them and play around.

Posted in Beauty, Makeup

Super Belated Eyeshadow Update

Posted on by Cher_Squared

I very quickly lost interest in my Wizardry and Witchcraft palette dupe. I think it lasted two weeks before picking up my Too Faced Chocolate bar palette again. I used it for all of May and a week or two in April, I think. I made some really good progress and I’m very proud of myself.

Progress

Below is a comparison between the last picture I took of the palette, December, and now, June. I apologize for the crappy picture from December. I’ve started taking pictures in a different room so … yeah.

The first thing you’ll notice is that big ol’ pan in White Chocolate and that baby pan in Semi-Sweet. For the life of me I can not get Milk Chocolate to pan or dent and it’s annoying. I used that shade everyday for a month in my crease and nothing. That’s okay. I’ll get there.

How I’ve Been Using It

I use White Chocolate to set my eyelid primer and as a brow highlight. Milk Chocolate as a transition shade in my crease followed by Semi-Sweet to darker the crease. For the lid I do a number of things. Either Marzipan, Creme Brulee, or Candied Violet.

I found that Creme Brulee with Gilded Ganache in the outer corner is really nice. I’m very happy to have found a use for Gilded Ganache as it’s my least favorite shade in the palette. That gash you see in it? I tried to depot it.

Black Forest Truffle and Candied Violet I had trouble with because they are the glittery shades and there’s fallout. They also go on quite sheer and require a lot of build up to achieve opacity. However, I’ve been using their sheerness to my advantage and I actually really like Candied Violet gently brushed on my lids. It appears more gray-purple and is great for simpler makeup days.

Looking Forward

I am very proud of myself for hitting pan on those two shades. As much as I love Marzipan I feel like it’s next. You probably can’t tell from the picture there’s a very big dent in the left corner. I might focus on that for a while.

Outside of the eyeshadow palette I also finished a blush and a highlighter! Technically neither was truly finished but it was hard to get the product from either. I decided to throw out the blush but continue to use the highlighter in the inner corner of my eye while I tackle another highlighter for my cheeks.

Posted in Beauty, Makeup, Skin Care

Review: S&T Always Off Makeup Remover

Posted on by Cher_Squared

After our taxes are done my husband and I usually sit down and review our spending. We see where we spend the most money and where we can cut unnecessary spending. Shortly after this I ran out of cotton rounds. I use cotton rounds to remove my eye makeup and to apply micellar water. Now, they’re not that expensive but I also thought about the makeup remover wipes I buy and how both products, plus my eye makeup remover, adds up over the year. It got me thinking about reusable makeup wipes which led me to purchase S&T Always Off Makeup Removers.

Use

I hate doing laundry so my goal was to use one remover a week and then wash them. In theory, it should correspond to how often I do my laundry. For my initial test I used one of the five makeup remover towels for a week. At first I wet it and then rung out the water but found out quickly that it worked best slightly damp. I had to work a little harder on my eye to remove my mascara but when I used a little of my makeup remover after the first day and it came off just as well as with the cotton rounds.

After cleaning my face with the S&T towels I would follow my regular face routine. I would use my Yes To Tomatoes Micellar Water (still with a cotton round), facial spray, then moisturize.

Texture & Scent

The towels have no scent unless I put face wash on them. They are very soft to the touch and were very nice on my skin.

Did it Work??

Yes. I stopped using the towel after a week because I decided I wanted to use up my Up & Up makeup remover towelettes and switch to the S&T towels for good. They left my face feeling clean and I noticed removed more makeup than the Up & Up removers!

Cost & Approval

For five towels I paid $6.99. They’ll replace my Up & Up makeup remover towelettes which are $3.64 for 30 and my cotton rounds which are $5.39 for a pack of 300. I’ll continue to use my Up & Up eye makeup remover and the Say Yes To Tomatoes Micellar Water but I’ll use them with the S&T towels instead of a cotton round. Sure the cost savings might be small and I still have a lot of other product waste, but I’m happy to replace what I can. Plus, I won’t have as much in my cabinet!

Posted in Beauty, Makeup

The Perfect Combination

Posted on by Cher_Squared

I bought Maybelline’s Fit Me Shine Free + Balance stick foundation for combination skin because I wanted to try a stick foundation. I bought it in shade 120, Classic Ivory and it’s a great match for me. The Laura Geller Spackle Hydrating moisturizing under make-up primer was given to me by a friend. I had never used anything by Laura Geller and was running out of primer so I was excited to give it a shot. These two products made the perfect combination.

Hydrating the Foundation

Like I mentioned above, the shade 120 was a great match. I found that it blended well but I had to try different brushes to find the best application. My stippling brush did not do a good job and I didn’t like how it looked with a sponge. I found that a flat top or dense brush worked best.

However, I did find that the foundation looked dry on my face. If I had some dry spots it looked even worse. This is where the Laura Geller primer comes in.

I started applying the Laura Geller primer with the same brush I would go on to apply the foundation. Between the primer hydrating my skin and the residual primer on the brush, the dry look of the foundation was solved.

What Came Before

You may be curious what primer I was using before the Laura Geller one. I used Maybelline’s Baby Skin Instant Pore Eraser Primer. It worked well with my previous foundation but not with the Fit Me. It did reduce the appearance of my pores though but I didn’t like the texture of the product itself.

What’s Next

I’m looking forward to finishing the Maybelline foundation. I’m not a big enough fan to repurchase it. The Laura Geller primer is 2 oz of product so I have a feeling that it’s going to last me a while. I’m intrigued to see how it works under other foundations. I do have at least three other primers lined up to try out after this one is done! Primer is the one thing I haven’t found my go-to for.

Posted in Beauty, Makeup

Product Comparison: IT Cosmetics Tightline Mascara VS NYC The Skinny Mascara

Posted on by Cher_Squared

I picked up a travel size of IT Cosmetics Tightline Mascara and a dupe for it, NYC The Skinny Mascara, a while ago thinking I’d get to this post a little sooner but alas I did not. Better late than never, right?

The Breakdown in Size

  • IT Cosmetics Tightline, travel size, is 2 ml (0.067628 oz) for $13. 
  • NYX The Skinny Masacara, full size, is 2.66 ml (0.09 oz) for $7.
  • Right away you can see that the sizes are similar but the full size NYX is about half the cost of the travel sized Tightline. 

Wand and Look

  • I think that the Tightline wand is finer and I preferred the application over the NYX wand.
  • NYX dried out faster than the Tightliner.
  • Both looked the same on my lashes.

Dupe or Don’t?

NYX is obviously the better deal between the two but I prefer the Tightline wand. I’m going to say that since both products looked the same and were close enough in ml/oz, that the NYX The Skinny Mascara is a dupe for the travel size of IT Cosmetics Tightline Mascara.

Posted in Beauty, Makeup

Eyeshadow: Just Peachy Mattes Dupe Update

Posted on by Cher_Squared

During February and March I’ve been using my Just Peachy Mattes dupe palette. I’m finding myself growing bored with it so it’s probably time to switch it up! I already put together another dupe palette which I think will be fun to try out.

Progress

Below is a comparison between February and March. The first thing you’ll notice is that I swapped out three shades. The second shade in the top row and the first shade in the second have made their way to my dupe palette. The third in the top row didn’t have a lot of pigment and so I swapped it with something that did.

The next thing you’ll notice is the fact that there is noticeable pan on three shades. The second shade in the top row is Honey Butter from Too Faced’s Natural Matte palette. I already hit pan on that shade but widened it significantly since adding it to this palette. The bottom right corner shade is Sexpresso, also from the Too Faced’s Natural Matte palette. Lastly, the top right shade is Allegro from The Balm Jovi Rockstar Face palette.

How I’ve Been Using It

I feel like this palette is very versatile and I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit. How I’ve been using during the last week and half has been different than the last month and half. I’ve been using a purple eyeliner to line my eyes, smudging it, and then using Sexpresso for the lid. I use Allegro for the crease and Honey Butter to blend it out. Some days I’d swap Sexpresso for the shade above it, which I believe is Love Letter from the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance palette. I’ve really enjoyed this look!

Next Up

I think my next dupe palette is perfect since I’m in a smokey/dark eye phase. It’s the Wizardry and Witchcraft palette from Storybook Cosmetics. Funny enough, when I was searching for shades in my collection most of what I found came from my Smoked palette by Urban Decay! Seriously, I used all but Blackout and Barlust.

Shades

Like I mentioned above, a majority of my dupe palette is made up of shades from the Smoked palette by UD. The top left brown is Cypress Umber from ABH’s Modern Renaissance, the long rectangles are from Coastal Scents’ Revealed 2, bottom right corner is Silver from the Lorac Pro 2 palette.

Differences

I think the shades I had a hard finding matches for were Sorcerer, Clock, and Siren. My red is matte, my gray isn’t matte, and my purple is just purple. Not going to lie here, I went on a search for a red that could compare with Sorcerer. Although there might be one out there I’m not buying any more eyeshadow until a bunch of mine is used up so I couldn’t purchase to try and compare.

Palette

You might have noticed some weird gold trim around my makeshift Wizardy and Witchcraft palette and gone, “what the —.” Let me explain. I depotted my Smoked palette but liked the case so I cut the middle out. It went better in some places than others. I wanted to spray paint it black but didn’t have any so I went with gold. Then I glued it back in and voila!

Posted in Beauty, Makeup

Eyeshadow: Morphe 9C Dupe Update

Posted on by Cher_Squared

During January I used my Morphe 9C palette dupe. I made some progress on the shadows and added another shade so I could have something as a base/blending shade. Overall, I liked it. 

For February I wanted to try another palette that I’ve been wanting – Too Faced’s Just Peachy Mattes palette. You’ll notice that not all the shades are matte but I’m happy with them. I’ve been using it for two weeks now and I love it. I think the “color story” in this palette is more my speed.

The lighting for the picture below is weird so it doesn’t look very accurate. I’ll probably swap out my current Peach Cobbler shade for a deeper orange shade but I’m loving my Fresh Picked dupe. It’s a Lorac shade called Nectar. 

Posted in Beauty, Makeup

Something to Inspire

Posted on by Cher_Squared

A few years ago I watched a makeup video on YouTube that was a “pan that palette” series. It inspired me to try and use up my eye shadows and lip products. Originally I created a Tumblr to track my journey and since initially starting that page I’ve included product reviews and have recently started a search for a skin care routine. I feel housing these thoughts on WordPress would be easier for me since my other two blogs are also on WP.

Whereas my other blogs are General Life and The Sims focused, this one will be solely for my beauty thoughts. I’m keeping my Tumblr up and you can check out what I’ve done so far here. I think it’s worth skimming through. I have several attempts at panning and a few de-potting posts you might enjoy. I personally enjoy looking at those. Panning posts always motivate me!

This is my adventure, I make the rules.