My Birthday List! (Fall Launches 2012)

     I always, ALWAYS hated having my birthday in November. Face it, it's cold, snowy, and just yuck. I wanted a summer birthday my whole life. But now that I've gotten into my love of makeup and I can appreciate where my birthday lies. As you all know, every major makeup brand is coming out with all their totally amazing holiday palettes and sets, RIGHT NOW. Right before my birthday! Now I look forward to my birthday because there are so many wonderful things for me to choose from. That makes me sounds 12 years old, and greedy, but I don't care. I love makeup, pretty things, and presents. What girl doesn't? 

Instead of doing a "My Thoughts Of Fall Launches" post this year, I thought I would turn it in to a birthday list, with only things I actually really love. I could go on and on with multiple posts if I tried to cover everything, and that's just not feasible. 

    I will say that NOTHING from Too Faced turns my crank this year. There are way too many repromoted shades in their palettes for my tastes. I don't own much from Too Faced, but with any one of the palettes, I'd end up with multiple dupes. 

Lastly, I am going to add something to the end of this post that I already purchased, because it defiantly deserves a spot on this list of Most Amazing Holiday Palettes. I will also add something that is not a Fall Launch, but also defiantly deserves to be on this list. 

So what's on my list?? Keep reading to find out!

Swatchfest: Hard Candy Baked Duo - Rush Hour

     Hi loves, super quick post today. I have to get a certain little boy ready for school (and probably dress myself also...). This is the last little installment of the Hard Candy Baked Duos that I own.

     This duo is called Rush Hour, and consists of a very dark brown, and a reddish coppery color. Remember that these shadows can be worn dry or wet. They retail at Walmart only for $6.

Drugstore Mascara Run Down

I have tried quite a few mascaras in my day. Not every mascara in the drugstore, but a good number. I just wanted to list what is great, or not so great, about each mascara I've tried. At the end I will list them in order of my favorite to my least favorite.

What criteria do I look for in a mascara? Let's see:

- Volumizing

- Separating

- Lengthening

- No Smudging

- No Clumping

- No Flaking 

- Very Black in Color

- Dry Formula

- Holds A Curl

That's not a lot to ask for, is it? 

Swatchfest: Hard Candy Baked Duo - High Maintenance

    I went back to Walmart yesterday to pick up the other two Kal-eye-descope Baked Duos I was wanting from Hard Candy. I picked up the one called 'Peace' last week, and you can see it here. The two new ones I picked up are the ever famous 'High Maintenance' and 'Rush Hour'. 

    This duo, like the other, was very easy to swatch. These eyeshadows can be worn dry, or wet. I suggest  spritzing your brush with either a small amount of water, or with makeup setting spray. You can find the ELF Mist & Set at Target for $3, if you are in the market for one. 

    These baked duos retail for $6, and the Hard Candy line is exclusive to Walmart. If these eyeshadows interest you, go get you some! (EleventhGorgeous anyone? :) ) These have great pigmentation, are very easily blendable. The 3 duos I own are all neutral toned ones, but they also come in a variety of other colors, if that's what tickles your fancy. The one in 'Rock & Roll', which is a purple one, looks pretty interesting to me also. 

Swatchfest: Maybelline Fall 2012 - Boho Gold

Alrighty ladies and gents, this is my last swatch post of Maybelline Fall 2012 LE items. This last swatch is of the other nail polish I picked up, Boho Gold. 

    This polish is along the lines of Chanel's Peridot, and OPI's Just Spotted the Lizard. I am sure however that those two other polishes are more opaque, and less sheer as this one is. This is a gold polish with a green duo chrome shift to it. It's a lovely polish, awesome color. The only downside is that after 3 coats, I still have VNL like crazy. It's just very sheer on the nail. Kind of a bummer. 

This polish retails for $3.99 at Rite Aid (where I found mine). If you are a Rite Aid Reward card holder, Maybelline is BOGO 50% this week. Also, they are still running the deal where you purchase $15 in Maybelline products, you get $5 back in an UP Reward. 

    At the bottom of this post I will have a recap with quick links to the other posts in this series, in case you missed anything. 

Swatchfest: Urban Decay Skull Shadow Palette

   

   Hi dolls! I'm back with some more swatches. I feel like that's pretty much all I've done all month, but I have a lot to get through, and let's face it: swatch posts are helpful. I'm constantly looking up swatches on blogs.

    I ordered this palette last week when I ordered my Vice Palette from UrbanDecay.com. It is currently in the sale section for $12, regularly priced at $36. I think $36 is a ridiculous price to put on this palette. Ot's so small. About the size of a Too Faced palette, but much much thinner. $12 is a good price point in my opinion. 

    This palette comes with 9 shadows, a sponge tip applicator, and a mirror. The shadows themselves are about the size of a penny. All of them are shimmery, especially Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, which has major glitter fallout.

On to the swatches!

My Look: Vice, Vice Baby

    

Ok, so back story on todays post title. Last night I was having a girly night, ya know: candles, wine, chick flicks. I was watching 13 Going On 30 (love that movie) and the hockey guy does the cheesy strip tease to 'Ice, Ice Baby'. I used the Vice Palette today, so Vice/Ice, there ya go.

This palette is SO FREAKING AWESOME. I seriously stared at it for a good 2 minutes before finally deciding where I was going to go first. I had to convince myself that I could not wear all 20 colors at one time, so I had to make my selection carefully ;-) If you have not seen swatches of the Urban Decay Vice Palette yet, you can do so by clicking here.

Let me lastly say: who is amazed I did a look post today? I certainly am! It is so cold and rainy here today, so I was surprised I got half decent pictures in the kitchen. Guess I better get used to it since winter will be approaching. Boo to that!

Swatchfest: Urban Decay Vice Palette

     I was going to say: "Guess what I got?!?" but considering I have to title this blog post, I already gave it away lol. This just arrived in the mail today, and I was soooo excited to see it! I ordered this from the Urban Decay website on Monday, so shipping was pretty speedy.

    This palette contains 20 ALL NEW shades, no repromotes! That is so exciting. I hate it when Urban Decay sticks the same colors in every palette. I already have 2 Blackouts, 2 Half Bakeds, 2 Choppers, etc.  So I was pretty happy that these shadows were all new, and I wasn't getting anything I already own. 

    For my favorites, and least favorites from this palette, stay tuned after the swatches!

Swatchfest: Hard Candy Baked Duo - Peace

    There I was, minding my own business at Walmart. Next thing you know I'm in the beauty section. How in the hell does that always happen? I was looking for something totally un-makeup related, but happened upon the Hard Candy area anyways. #storyofmylife

    The point of that story was this: I picked up the Kal-eye-descope Baked Duo in 'Peace'. I look at these Hard Candy duos every time I am in Walmart, but never buy any. There are a couple more I'd like to grab also (Rush Hour & High Maintenance) but this was the one that caught my eye first.

   I have not worn this shadow yet, but it was very easy to swatch, both wet and dry. The texture was very buttery, not powdery whatsoever. This is a baked product, so obviously it is not matte. It is not glittery at all either though. It has a shimmery satin finish. Using it wet gives it more of a metallic feel.

Have you picked up any of these Hard Candy duos? What are your favorites? What are your picks from Hard Candy in general? Let me know in the comments.

Swatchfest: Maybelline LE Fall 2012 - Tenacious Taupe

Hi my loves! Today I have my second - to - last post of the Maybelline LE Fall 2012 items I've collected. I have one more nail polish to swatch after this. 

Rite Aid has a deal going on right now (probably until Sat) where you spend $15 on Maybelline, you get $5 back in an UP Reward. The Maybelline lipsticks retail for $7.49, so with my $5 I had on my Rite Aid card, I picked this one up for a whopping $2.68 (that includes tax). 

This is the only lipstick in the collection that really appealed to me. I love nude lipsticks, but the rest were way to brown toned/too dark/ too rosy for my liking. 

To see a swatch and a comparison to other nude lipsticks that may be similar, keep reading!

Blush Collection Pt. 3 - Drugstore & High End

Here is the oh so shocking conclusion of my blush collection. I'm jamming them all into this last post, because I'd rather not have 4 separate posts on my blush. Makes me feel bad about myself LOL. In this post I have some NYX, Milani and my MAC so.... keep reading! :-)

Blush Collection Pt. 2 - Drugstore

I'm back with another installment of the 'ole blush collection. There will be at least one more post after this, possibly even two. That's ridiculous, I can't believe I have that much frackin' blush. Whatevs, I don't care, I love me some blush!

Swatchfest: Maybelline Fall 2012 - Downtown Brown

What's up guys? Not much here, just running errands for the week ahead, and lounging around the homefront. 

For today's post I have one of the LE nail polishes from the Maybelline Fall 2012 collection. As I stated yesterday, I am LOVING this collection. I don't think I've ever been so excited for any kind of makeup collection ever before. I love this. I think I may actually go back to Rite Aid and pick up at least one of the lipsticks. 

Anywhoozle, onto the swatch!

Swatchfest: Maybelline LE Fall 2012 - Eyeshadows

Let me just start out by saying that this collection is AMAZING. I love pretty much everything in it. If you are unaware this collection is available at places such as Rite Aid and Walgreens. The collection consists of:

2 Brow Pencils

2 Master Drama Eyeliners

4 Color Tattoos

4 Blush & Bronzers

4 EyeStudio Quads

6 Lipsticks

6 Nail Colors

I have swatched the Color Tattoos already, and you can see that post here. I do need to add Mossy Green to that post, so please excuse my laziness on that. I have 2 of the nail polishes that I will swatch soon, but today I have 2 of the EyeStudio quads to share with you. The 2 quads I picked up were #200 - Smokey Cinnamon, and #400 - Olive Martini. 

Let me preface this by saying: At my Rite Aid they were also repromoting a quad from last years fall collection call 'Strut It Suede'. I don't know if that is a repromote for this collection, or if it was just in the wrong spot. So if you were looking for that quad last year, check the new display. You may get lucky. I have that quad (I found it at Big Lots for $3), so if you'd like swatches of it, let me know in the comments below. 

How Much Is Your Face Worth?

Hi guys!

I've been seeing this post pop up in my blog feed a couple times now, and I thought it would be fun to do. Basically you do your makeup, and add up how much everything costs that you used. 

I did not purposely just choose a bunch of random cheap products. I used everything I normally use, and already had my eye shadow picked out before I decided to do this post. I did not factor in brushes (I'm not sure if you are supposed to or not?) Also, there are a lot of things I got on sale, but I am listing everything at retail prices.

So, let's see how much my face is worth! Keep reading after the jump!

Blush Collection Pt. 1 - Creams

Hi my loves! As promised in my blush collection video (which I will link below), I have some swatches of my blushes. There is NO WAY on God's green Earth I can put all of my blush in one post, so I will be splitting it up into a few. In this first post I have all of my cream type blushes, wether they be in stick, or pot form. Enjoy!