NOTD

Which we all know means nail of the week, because I am lazy and like having cuticles.




• OPI for Sephora Have You Met Rose, Mary?
• OPI for Sephora Arose Beyond Shimmer (accent)

in which our heroine returns from sabbatical

Maybe it was not so much a sabbatical, which makes it sound like I was making macaroni jewelry with impoverished Costa Rican toddlers or surveying the world from a mountain peak in Tibet, as my coming undone, like a slow motion dive through a glass window.

On the upside, it could always be worse.  It could be 200 years ago where the only possible outcome was ending up in an opium den smelling of sweat and desperation, but it is not, and for this, I am grateful.

On a somewhat happier note, my medication regimen has been stabilized and Sephora partnered with color industry leader (yeah, I didn't know color was an actual industry, either) Pantone, first sometime in late 2011 to bring us the, in my never humble, never sorry opinion, poorly thought out Color of the Year product line.  Tangerine Tango is a nice color, but orange eyeliner is not a trend because it looks horrible, not because it is groundbreaking.

Pantone started in the 1950s as a commercial printing company and by the early 1960s (the Wonder Years, if you will) Hofstra University graduate Lawrence Herbert has simplified the company's pigments and production of colored ink into a solitary color system.  The colored ink production side of the company was booming while the printing side had become a financial drain, so Herbert bought all of the technology from the company and renamed the entire gig Pantone.  They are most well known for the Pantone Matching System, which is a "proprietary color space" (when you figure out the actual meaning behind that phrase, holler at me, because I haven't a clue and haven't any real fucks to give, either).  The Pantone Matching System essentially standardizes colors and color production so that, theoretically, it can be ensured that color is uniform even though manufacturers may never have direct contact with each other.  Product-wise, they are most well known for the Pantone Guides, which come in booklets that you can fan out so they look a little something like this:

photo credit: 123rf.com Royalty Free Stock Photos

They bring back memories of spending approximately 57 percent of my childhood in paint stores, stealing as many color cards as we could just to get home and dump them on the floor and be yelled at for our privileged wastelessness.  Company profiles and childhood anecdotes aside, Pantone has made Sephora palettes something actually worth buying.

Sleek packaging makes you feel like Rodeo Drive and palm trees.  Or maybe the Amazon rainforest.  Or maybe a praying mantis.  We could do this all day.

Makeup brushes deserving of their own plastic covers for holidays and dinner parties.  That is why the photo is blurry, after all.  Emulating your New York Eye-talian grandmother since...forever.

It is like a Sherwin Williams color card display...for your face.  The 8 year old in me rejoices minus the parental reprimands.

They are highly pigmented and while the color payoff isn't as good as say, Urban Decay, I think the colors are much bolder than the normal UD selections, and I often have the problem with UD of what is in the pot never actually transferring to my face as the same color (while they are highly pigmented, even when applying UD eyeshadows wet, they always seem to appear much more muted on my face, though I am more than willing to admit it could be something I am doing wrong.)  These don't wear as long as UD, but I can't think of many occasions I need 24 hour eyeshadow for, anyway.  I have Sephora's Blockbuster palette from last year, and the shadow formulation seems to have been changed, or they are using an entirely different formulation for their Pantone Universe palettes in an attempt to step it up.  I'm not sure, exactly.

Brush set and shadow palette for 100 dollars, people.  That's all I'm saying.  

On that note, my not-so-gentle readers! What do you want me to write about? What makeup product has you completely stumped? What makeup blog entry do you want to see?  I tend to overwhelm myself with all the makeup talk and not know what to write about, so help a girl out.

ULTA, or how I found the promised land.

So, I live in a city that seems to think we need a Sephora, but only as of 5 years ago, and the closest ULTA is almost 2 hours away. I go on the online and hear all about the wonder that is ULTA, but it wasn't until I went to visit my good friend Erica in Syracuse that I got to meet ULTA.

Do not stop at GO, do not collect 200 dollars, no bathroom or food stops, I was going to ULTA.

I walked in, and the sky didn't open and there no angels singing, but I like what they've done with the place. There was more makeup than one can shake a stick at (if one has a stick to be shaking; I do not). See, no stick:

Sephora is my second home, mostly for the selection and because it's slightly less threatening than places such as the MAC makeup counter, which make me feel low class and nervous. ULTA is more department store than makeup counter, and I can see someone who knows the basics being able to go into ULTA and discover some new products without running out like they just walked in on a surprise gang bang. They've ditched the head-to-toe black that makeup counters (and by extension, Sephora) have traditionally favored, split the store into higher-end products and more typical drugstore lines, so it has more of a something-for-everyone feel. Sephora has a more vested interest in the makeovers (50 dollars, but it comes with a 50 dollar gift card, so it's a break even with some tips and product for you, and a break even guarantee for them to move some product out and probably get you back in the store in the future). ULTA seemed to have more promotions and discounts, too. I picked up a promo makeup bag for spending over 75 dollars, and it's mediocre; if I had to go with one of the store's brands to recommend, I would say Sephora's is more what I look for in my makeup. But by removing the harsh black lines, overzealous makeup pushers, pretty but non-functional displays, and stage lighting, I think ULTA may have a hand in pushing people from the Duane Reade Maybelline display and into Sephora when it comes to their makeup.

Bringing decent makeup to the people, man. It's a beautiful thing.