Addicted to Pretty? Addicted to NEON.

So today, this came in the mail:

Sugarpill Cosmetics, Sweetheart palette from the Addicted to Pretty collection

I first purchased from Sugarpill Cosmetics about six months ago when I was on the prowl for the perfect matte white shadow.  I had a lot of matte white shadows in cheapie palettes I had picked up along the way, but most of them had just led to a lot of frustration at the color not being buildable, the white not showing up, et cetera.  I blogged about MAC Gesso last year as my first entry EVAR, and while it is a matte white that I could make work, it still involved a lot of effort and energy and uh.  I am lazy a lot of days.  A friend suggested I try Sugarpill's Tako, because it got good reviews on YouTube and the makeup blog circuit.  So that I did. Tako is the essential matte white shadow, as far as I am concerned, so when Sugarpill had their birthday sale last week and all shadows were on sale, I was more than okay with the Sweetheart palette having that color, even though I have a single already.

I don't own any of the other colors in a single, so I was excited to see how pigmented they were.  (I am not kidding anyone, any makeup purchase turns me into the proverbial child on Christmas morning).  I swatched all four colors on the back of my hand.  I am very fair-skinned, so often a color will look SUPER BRIGHT in the pan, then I have to spend enough time building the color to match how I feel it it supposed to look that I can practically feel myself aging.  Which means wrinkles, which I don't want. That is one thing I really like about Sugarpill - what you see in the pan is pretty much what you get.  I did not put any primer on my hand before swatching (though I would never use it without primer on my eyes) and the colors are still bold and bright. 

As for the colors: Sugarpill's website calls Afterparty a "bright turquoise" but to me, turquoise is more of a bright teal, with more green than this color has.  This shadow reminds me of the Cerulean crayon in the box of 64 Crayola set (I am dating myself here).  Which was, COINCIDENTALLY, my favorite crayon color back in 1990.  It is more a bright neon blue than a turquoise, at least for me.  It is not a matte, it has what Sugarpill describes as a "semi-pearly sheen".

The site calls Dollipop "vibrant, matte, hot pink!"  And..yes.  That is exactly what it is.  It is the perfect hot pink matte eyeshadow.

They stick with "vibrant green with a slight pearly sheen" to describe Midori, which is vague.  It is a kelly green, and the slight pearly sheen part is spot on, because it is very slight, but enough that it isn't exactly a matte, but definitely has far less of a sheen than Afterparty.

I can't wait to use this palette, though I am a little late for Carnaval, I may use it for my first real tutorial, which is probably coming this weekend.  (Probably.  I have commitment issues.)

Stay beautiful, party people.

It isn't easy being green

Nail of the day:

Products used:
China Glaze Refreshmint
Essie Mojito Madness (accent)
China Glaze Graffiti Madness (glitter)
Graffiti Madness is from China Glaze's new Glitz collection, which I am in love with. Which is a given, being Queen of All Things That Sparkle.
Next up: my Valentine's Day makeup look, a few days late.

Stay beautiful, party people.

In which our heroine goes to MAC and goes green

The last time I came in direct contact with a MAC counter was in a Neiman Marcus in southern Florida that smelled like CA$H MONEY without Lil Wayne and tear drop tattoos.

HOWEVER. I decided this morning that I needed (no, not wanted; needed-like-I-need-oxygen-NEEDED) a white matte eyeshadow.  Actually, I decided this a few days ago, but Sugar Pill was out of stock on their website and I had some meltdown about the possibility of having to go to a cosmetics counter and most if was of the WHAT IF THEY JUDGE MY MAKEUP!? variety .  So the meltdown part was already out of my system, WHY NOT.

They did not judge my makeup.  They put my eyeshadow in this:

That's an 8x11 sheet of paper next to it (and a nail file...yeah, I got nothin') and my little eyeshadow on top.

Clearly, MAC hasn't concerned itself with environmental conservation, so to make up for the damage I've done to the environment in the 10 seconds it took for me to make the purchase, I did this:

Keeping it as concise as possible because READING IS HARD:
1. Conceal and prime your lids
2. NYX Milk Pencil from lash to brow.
3. Build MAC Gesso shadow (which I will pretend means "matte white" somewhere in the world) over lid until it is opaque.  This is applied with a damp brush.
4. Cut crease with Urban Decay Bender (forest green) applied wet.  Blend upward.
5. Urban Decay Midnight Cowgirl (pale champagne with glitter) applied dry on brow bone.  Blend downward into green.
6. Using a damp brush, apply Urban Decay Skimp (another white, but with more shimmer) along arch of brow for a highlight.
7. Urban Decay El Dorado (yellow-gold) applied dry over the white of MAC Gesso on lid and blended lightly into crease.  I lined under the lower lash using a wet brush.
8. Using Smashbox Jet Set Waterproof Eye Liner in Midnight Black and an angled eyeliner brush, I lined along the top lash for a bold line, then a softer line underneath, and joined them together at the outer corner.  I brushed El Dorado over liner lightly to soften the look.
9. Benefit They're Real! mascara in black on bottom and top lashes.
10.  Because I am a bad ass, I filled my brows.  I use Urban Decay Brow Box in Honey Pot.

And voila:

I have been an Urban Decay shadow loyalist for years (though I do find the purple packaging garish, that is neither here nor there and has nothing to do with the product) and resisted MAC for a long time because the idea of the MAC counter almost terrified me.  Irrational, unjustified anxiety? Sure, just like EVERY OTHER ANXIETY IN MY LIFE.  Using their shadow for the first time, though, I know I have developed another product to covet.  It is highly pigmented and you can build the color up without too much frustration which are two of the biggest things I look for in eyeshadow.

Despite the green, we all know this did nothing to make up for MAC's disregard of the environmental conservation movement, and no matter how hard I try, I don't think Urban Decay's production of vegan shadows really absolves me of all responsibility.

I would be willing to live in a tree and see if I could repair the hole in the ozone myself if I had enough MAC shadow in Gesso.  I'd love to tell you that has anything to do with socio-environmental responsibility and BEING THE CHANGE but really, I just want free makeup.  Urban Decay, Too Faced, MAC, I HOPE YOU ARE LISTENING: