Stila eyeshadows review in Sparkle and Cloud

I really wanted to try Stila after reading rave reviews and hauls around the web and when I saw two new shadow pans up for grabs on Ebay, I couldn’t resist.

The colours are in Sparkle and Cloud, and each pan is pretty big. The outer packaging is the typical Stila brown paper box that I’m not too keen on – it suggests a cheap eco-friendly brand that places more emphasis on hugging trees rather than what it should be all about – makeup quality. Mind you, I’ve nothing against the environment in general. I simply wish for sleeker packaging.

However, the products themselves are nothing like the wishy-washy, nondescript brown outer packaging. The pans were snugly situated in plastic and well protected. Sparkle is a beautiful rich brown/golden duochrome colour with lots of frost. Cloud is equally beautiful and swatches a gorgeous silver with a hint of grey/blue. The colour is duochrome too, so changes according to the light.

Sparkle

Cloud

Only a single swipe is needed to achieve such a pigmented swatch. The texture is buttery soft. I would compare it to my Urban Decay shadows in terms of pigmentation, but say that it’s even softer in texture. Despite the softness, there’s no need to worry about powdery fallout in my palette – a major bonus when moving between university accommodations and home.

With flash

No flash with horrid yellow lamp light

Overall, I wouldn’t mind owning a few more of these little gems at all. I hate paying jacked up prices here in the UK when it’s so much cheaper in comparison over in USA, so I’ll probably be scouring TKMaxx and Ebay for more Stila bargains. I saw a trio set at TKMaxx a while back but they’ve seem to have gone now, so it’s all based on luck really. Nevertheless, I’m not desperate for makeup anymore, so will happily let serendipity reign.

I’ve got two of their famed lipglosses to try in my stash of unopened goodies too. Can’t wait!

Anyone have good Stila recommendations?

Nyx eyeshadows in Luster and Golden Bronze review

I fell in love with Nyx after my first Cherry Culture haul and snapped up two more eyeshadows from Ebay recently in the colours Luster and Golden Bronze.

Pigmentation-wise, they are very, very good. In fact, I have been impressed with all the products I’ve tried from Nyx so far and have to say the pigmentation is top notch, regardless of price. I would happily place them in the same range as Mac or Urban Decay for some of the products, if not better, as in the case of the round lipsticks.

Luster is a light olive green colour with golden shimmer, whilst Golden Bronze is browner and contains similar olive undertones, along with shimmer. Golden Bronze is definitely the more wearable of the two, but the two are very complementary and would be a great duo for spring/summer. They’re unique in my collection as I own a stack of true browns/taupe singles, along with the Naked palette, but nothing olive-based.

These blend out nicely and last a long time with UDPP – no creasing for me for at least 8 hours, which is very nice. Of course, my shadows rarely crease as long as I use primer. It’s important to note that only a thin layer of primer is needed (this goes for cream eyeshadows used as base too) – overloading the lids with product is guaranteed crease-city.

With the whole range of colours Nyx offers, I’ll definitely be hitting Cherry Culture or Ebay soon. Any good colour recommendations?

O Nyx, Nyx! Wherefore art thou Nyx in my life?

O Nyx, Nyx! Wherefore art thou Nyx in my life?

A modified quote from Billy S seemed in order to emphasise the dramatic moment of this post. Plus it’s quite appropriate to reference some history, given that the Nyx brand and many of their product names are derived from Greek mythology, no?

My Nyx haul from Cherry Culture finally arrived yesterday! I ordered these items at the end of January, when Cherry Culture had the Nyx sale and also a 20% discount. All in all, order processing, packaging and shipping took a grand total of 16 days, which isn’t too bad I guess, although this is the first time I’ve ever ordered from the States before.

I was careful to keep the total value (not including P&P) under £18 in order to avoid the horrid customs duty and Import VAT from the HM Revenue office. I did tick the ‘Gift’ box during checkout as well, as gifts under £40 would be exempt. However, the declaration on the box was still classified as Non-gift, probably because I bought the items as a commercial consignment and the package isn’t sent ‘from a private person outside of EU to a private person’. Ah well, I did keep to the £18 limit after all!

An interesting thing to note is that the package label described the items as ‘Art Supplies’! I was so confused then I picked this up, wondering when I was crazy enough to order paints from the US and not remember – memory-loss at my youthful age is not very reassuring, to say the least.

So here’s my order. I simply used a Currency Converter form Google to check the amount in UK sterling pounds. It’s necessary to note the exchange rate varies – the £ value I got at checkout when converted by PayPal was higher than the converted value from the Currency Calculator I found via Google. The total came to £25.48 (including a P&P charge of around £7), which is quite impressive considering I hauled a total of 12 good quality items, plus a free lip balm.

Click on photo to enlarge!

1.       Round Lip Gloss (RLG) in Peach, a coral pink colour

2.       RLG in Soap Opera Queen , a bright fuschia with pink and silver sparkles

3.       RLG in Doll Pink, a lilac pink

4.       Jumbo Eye Pencil in French Fries, a copper bronze with gold base

5.       Jumbo Eye Pencil in Iced Mocha, a copper colour with silver base

6.       Single Eye Shadow in Latte Foam (Metallic), similar to French Fries but with a touch more gold shimmer

7.        Jumbo Lip Pencil in Soft Fuschia, a medium pink-mauve colour

8.       Diamond Sparkle Lipstick in Sparkling Copper, a shimmery hot pink with a touch of mauve

9.       Round lipstick (RL) in Lala (Unsure why I bought it now...), a purple based pink

10.   RL in Flower, a rich rose pink with light shimmer

11.   RL in Tea Rose, pale nude pink

12.   RL in Spell Bound, a rose pink similar to Flower, but more emphasis on the ‘rose’ part

13.   Free Cherry Culture Bubble Gum lipbalm (a colourless balm with a strong punch of Hubba Bubba bubblegum scent. Applies smoothly but feels like a layer on wax on lips).

So there you have it – I am no longer a Nyx virgin!

I know the items are as cheap as chips, but the effort I’ve spent researching all the colours and the Revenue fine prints to avoid a massive surplus charge has made my lil’ collection as precious as my more expensive items.

Plus you know what? It was damn well worth it!

Transform your ordinary eyeliner!

ELF has a Studio product called ‘Eye Transformer’ that is used to ‘Convert your shadows into brand new shades with... opalescent shadows.’

From the pictures, it looked a lot like my No 7 Pastel Shimmer eyeshadow trio which I bought in my first year at uni, so I unearthed the said item and tried a few experiments on black kohl swatches.

The results are frankly amazing – it completely changed the colour of an ordinary black liner! Are the colours not gorgeous?

From LH: No 7 Amazing eyes kohl pencil in black, blue shimmer on top, pink shimmer, yellow shimmer

When I used it on my eyes, the line is smudged out and not as harsh, which is great for a day time neutral look. I used a sponge tip applicator to apply the shadows, since it’s necessary to really press the powder into the kohl.

I experimented this technique with a few other shimmery eyeshadows in my collection and found only the really opalescence shades have the dramatic transforming effect. Nevertheless, it’s a great idea and a simple way to jazz up your boring black!

Love's (Labour's) Lost: Old Discoveries

Face of the Day:

Eyes:  Moonlight Lustre palette (The Body Shop)

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On eye pencil, Zero

Too Faced Lash Injection mascara

Benefit Eye Bright

Lips: No 7 Moisture Drench, Starshell

Cheeks: M.A.C Mineralize Skinfinish, Stereo Rose

I confess that I get caught up in fads more often than not. Topshop just launched a new makeup collection? Great, I’ll race you to the till. Urban Decay’s new Naked palette is now finally avilable? I better drop everything and scramble to the shops. Everything novel boasts appeal, whilst older products languish in the back of a drawer somewhere. I am not even talking about that three year old mascara (which should be tossed into the bin, right now), but the eyeshadow from three months ago or the lipstick soon celebrating its half birthday.  

A rummage in my eyeshadow collection recently, whilst under the pretense of organisation in order to procrastinate on my school work, brought up an interesting find. The palette is the only mineral eyeshadow product that I own and I’ve long forgotten what it was like. It is The Body Shop eye trio in shade 01: Moonlight Lustre. I don’t believe it’s sold in the UK anymore, but like I said previously, it has been a while.

Shade 1: Moonlight Lustre (Front)

I always found the trio of colours here interesting – it is one of those palettes with almost a random choice of colours put together: black, green and pink. There seem to be no harmony on paper or otherwise in real life. I apologise for not swatching the colours but take my word that they are very shimmery and sheer. The photos below are very good representations of the colours when swatched.

Pink on lid, green on edges, black on crease. Simple!

 

Anyway, the aim of this post today is to encourage everyone to go back and have a little poke around their makeup bag, hopefully discovering a new look from old products that are not expired. As a potential scientist, I cannot emphasise the sanitation reasons to throw away products past their sell by date. Bacteria builds up most easily in cream products, possibly causing infections and breakouts.  BBC News reported on the VAT increase of 2.5% from January 4^th 2011 today, so if there’s a time to rediscover lost loves, this might be it!