L'Oreal H.I.P. Eyeshadows Review and Swatches, Pt. 1

If you haven't been in a drugstore makeup aisle in a while, check out the L'Oreal HIP (High Intensity Pigments) line. In my case, when I recently resumed wearing makeup, and thus became obsessed with adding more colors to my arsenal, just marching to the mall and randomly buying expensive shadows would not have been a really smart move. The popular L'Oreal HIP eyeshadow duos were the perfect solution. They come in a wide variety of really pretty colors, in some cases very high contrast, dramatic pairings. And, best of all, most of them do have high pigmentation that one wouldn't necessarily expect from drugstore makeup.

I wouldn't say these shadows are equal to MAC or other high-end makeup brands' shadows, but for drugstore, they are really good buys. I am featuring my own collection and providing reviews and swatches in case they might help someone reading this. It is my magnum makeup opus!

The most recent release is the matte shadow duos, and the other categories are the concentrated, bright, and metallic duos. Let's start this series with the concentrated. I'll be reviewing two duos, "Charisma" and "Devious."

I provide pictures of the shadows, swatches, and my attempts to use them on my very own eyes. Eek! Obviously, I am not a model (nor a makeup artist or photographer!!), and my hooded eye shape isn't the best for showing off eyeshadows. On the other hand, so many women have this eye shape, and seeing shadows on this eye shape might provide something other blogs or professional beauty sites don't?!

Both of the looks in this post are the same, with the left shadow used on the lid, then the right shadow blended into the crease. I note the differences and staying power for each individual duo.

First up: Charisma, a purply duo. The left shadow is a shimmery light pinky purple, smooth and silky to the touch, while the right shadow is dark purple, rougher and less creamy with just a touch of shimmer. When smearing the swatches on my hand, I found the lighter color really smeared while the darker stayed put. I did this not to be messy or contrary, but to predict how the shadows will blend or go on the eye.

I've worn these shadows recently over Urban Decay Primer potion a couple of times, and they have excellent staying power.

Pictures of the duo are indoors, first the duo in the overhead light, then tipped to be more in shadow, and followed by swatches on my hand or arm.


Some swatches on my hand to show the colors:



And, some pics on eye. And, another reminder that my lid is small!!



"Devious" is an earthy duo that reminds me of fall clothes. It contains a medium green---kind of an olive green with some shimmer---paired with a tobacco brown that is also shimmery. Both shadows have the same texture, going on silkily and smoothly and blending the same when I was smearing them on my hand. These shadows will blend well on the eye, and will provide some layering possibilities. I have had good results with the shadows from the duo staying on for the whole day.

Swatches on the back of my hand:


Pretty!!! Earthy!! Autumny!! And, below, showing them out of the direct light.


On the eyelid, just the green (with some fallout that needs cleanup):


With brown in the crease:





Supporting characters:

The tools used in my pictures include L'Oreal Telescopic mascara in brown black, Maybelline eye pencil in slate blue, three shadow brushes from CVS (two smaller crease brushes and a domed eyeshadow brush, all with the lighter handles), a blending brush from Japonesque (purchased from ULTA, in back with black handle), and Urban Decay Primer Potion (UDPP).

Conclusion: My favorite duos are turning out to be the ones that are more blendable, in this case, Devious, the green and brown. When applying these particular shadows, one can adjust smears or miscues easily as one goes along. With the darker color in Charisma, the purple duo, the staying power is great in theory, but they are not easy to manipulate when needing to tidy up or adjust when applying. For that reason, I think those colors are great for lining the lids, either on their own or layering with an eye pencil or eyeliner.

Coming up: I have 6 more concentrated duos, as well as 2 matte and 4 metallic! Stay tuned.

Wet 'n' Wild "Craze" Nailpolishes

Finally, I'm starting my Drugstore Beauty Series! I can't think of a better way than to showcase a super-cute collection of nail polishes, the Wet 'n' Wild "Craze" collection. To be honest, I really hadn't thought about getting any cheap drugstore polishes, but I did read a couple of reviews on these. And, Scrangie blogged---in a review on this collection, actually---that people should not overlook the cheaper polishes; in some cases they could be better than some of the higher-priced polishes!! Well, I immediately resolved to open myself up to trying the cheap stuff.

Last weekend, as I was cruising through a CVS I don't normally go to, I happened to spot the Craze collection. The bottles are so cute! They are rather little, with a cute white-on-black paisley-ish design on the bottles. The colors are bright and seductive. And at $1.99, I began going through and scooping them up!! Who cares which colors I was most interested in, I got one of each. Unfortunately, one polish, "Rustic," was missing so I ended up with eight polishes: 2 metallic, 3 neon, 2 super dark, and one glitter. A great collection!!


Let's take a look at these, then I'll give my review. First, the metallics.


"Goldmine" is a bright, metallic gold, above and below:


"Shield" is more of an antique gold shimmery metallic:



"Lust" is a shimmery bright, hot pink:


"Inferno" is a bright, hot orange shimmer.


"Jade" is a bright, limey green shimmer.


"Morbid" is a dark, shimmery blacked teal.


"Noctural" is a dark navy blue creme. One coat worked for me, and it still showed as blue.


With a flash to show the blue color:


"Glitz" is a purple glitter. The glitter is small and fine and includes a healthy dose of shimmery silver glitter and some additional colors. Two coats made for an opaque covering, but I used three to make sure. The surface is pure glitter! Seeing whether I had total coverage was kind of hard because of the major twinkling of the glitter, which also made photographing the color of it really difficult. Removal of this glitter was also quite a challenge as well.



I didn't really know why these polishes were supposed to be anything special. I began trying them on and taking pictures for my blog (and my personal polish catalog). When I was on the third or fourth polish, I realized: they were applying really nicely! The formula was thin enough but not too sheer, easy to manipulate, and with not too much streaking. Two coats did an excellent job, even for the glitter.

I really liked the short brushes, as well. I found them very easy to manipulate. I find that China Glaze has a rather thin, runny formula sometimes, and the problem I have is with drips that run down the wand onto the brush. The Craze brushes do not have the wand, so all the polish is on the brush and no where else. All in all, these polishes are great! I would recommend them as dupes for these non-traditional shades that one may not want to shell out Essie or OPI (or higher!) prices for.

My rating: On a *5 point scale, I give this collection a Euridice YAY! 5 out of 5 points.

*1 = Euridice NO! 2 = Meh! 3 = Okay 4 = Quite good! 5 = Euridice YAY!

Prescriptives Fall 2009 "Well-Suited" Collection Eyeshadow Swatches!

This past August I began to wear makeup again on a daily basis, mainly inspired by a sudden addiction to YouTube beauty tutorials. While I had enough makeup already to sustain daily use, I couldn't help but start buying more!! I delved into drugstore brands, exploring L'Oreal HIP Duos and Physicians Formula baked eyeshadow trios. Then, I got the tweet and the 411 on the new Prescriptives fall makeup line....literally, it was a "tweet" on Twitter from beauty411, a blog that has quickly become one of my most useful beauty reads.

I have always used Prescriptives. I got "color printed" a million years ago (the process that determines to which of 4 skintone families one belongs; I'm a blue-red, by the way), and this brand saved me from makeup disaster. I have been wearing Prescriptives foundations ever since.

The Prescriptives method is fool-proof, since you get a foundation and powder that matches your skintone perfectly. You create classic and neutral looks by sticking to your color family for eyes, lips, and cheeks, but get more dramatic looks by venturing into the opposite color family. In addition, Prescriptives comes out with awesome seasonal offerings.

I have always used blue-red blushers, lipsticks, and eyeshadows, mixed in with a liberal dose of red (blue-red and red making up the cool colors), and an occasional yellow-orange for more drama.

So, then, when I got the tweet with information on the new collection, I sped over to my neighborhood Nordstrom's. This fall's release is called "Well-Suited" because it is inspired by menswear. Aptly, the compacts have a cute design mimicking pinstripes and pearls. I picked up the "cool" and "neutral" eyeshadow quints, but unfortunately, the store did not have a Prescriptives representative working there to show me the new eyeshadows and lipsticks, not to mention the intriguingly pink finishing powder. I'll have to catch the rep at a Prescriptives counter at a mall further away to find out more, not to mention be shown some looks with the quints I got.

Each quint features four eyeshadows with one shadow for lining and defining.

The Prescriptives site includes a how-to for the cool palette of the Well-Suited Collection. I'd like to check out the Posh Nude lipstick, myself. The cool shadow quint features Shell, Velour, Pinstripe, Cassis, and Blackberry.



Swatches made using my finger, trying to catch the light at different angles, top three colors are Shell, Velour, and Pinstripe (a nice gray!), bottom two are Cassis and Blackberry, the latter being the liner.




The neutral quint features a mix of shadows from both the cool and warm shadow families. I hadn't seen a neutral palette from Prescriptives before, so I was intrigued. The shadows are: Champagne, Clove, Sultry, Storm, and Jet. The how-to on the website tells you how to put the neutral look together. I am not sure, to tell the truth, what the point of a neutral palette is, since one's own color family would be the neutral palette for an individual. I obviously need to find a Prescriptives rep and get the scoop on the company's current thinking.

And some swatches, this time trying to mimick the shape of the shadows in the compact: l-r Champagne, Clove, Sultry, Storm, and Jet.



I just realized that I have a vein or something sticking out on my hand. Gross! That is not always there.

I didn't buy the warm quint, which contains Silk, Bean, Olive, Moss, and Espresso eye colors, since I have a lot of new eyeshadows already in what I consider dramatic colors for me.

The palettes are easy to open and include mirrors. Keeping with the collection's theme, the looks are very classic---nothing crazy-trendy. Of course, if one wants different sets of shadows than these, no problem! Just put together your own compact by buying shadows as singles and putting them in a Prescriptives quad compact. You can do all four shadows or combine a couple of shadows with a blusher.

These compacts are retailing for $40 (not a bad deal at $8 a shadow if, like me, you balk at that amount) at Prescriptives.com or your local Prescriptives counter.

Nail Noob: MAC "Cool Reserve" in Action

Well, in last Monday's look I sported my Essie Chinchilly" gray nails with my blue and gray outfit, orange handbag and shawl, and orange and gray eye look. Fun! The gray nails went nicely with a black top with a pattern of gray and white dots on Tuesday, then I switched it up to OPI "Do You Lilac It?" on Wednesday. I pulled the purple from the print of my black floral top, added my pearl rope and a Juicy Couture bracelet featuring flower blooms ('cause during the September transition, flowers are still blooming like crazy!). Love this pretty lilac nail color!


Just adding a couple of pictures I took when I bought the JC bracelet this past spring, to show it on the wrist and how the flowers are actually a heart-shaped clasp!! Love!

After stopping to pick up a prescription on Thursday evening, I took off the lilac to play around with some fun polishes I picked up from Wet 'n' Wild and Milani. I had to decide, therefore, what to wear for the weekend, including traveling on Friday to visit my family. Since I was going to stick with my Belen Echandia orange handbag, I finally settled on my orange nail color find, the OPI "In my Back Pocket." It had seemed a little harder for me to apply, but hey! I had a quick drying top coat now.

Well, it came out kind of gloppy and not a very good application. It was decent, but not something I was really proud of. Great bright orange color, but just so gloppy to apply! A little challenging for this nail newbie. So, yesterday, Saturday, I got ready for a day of college football by switching to my new MAC "Cool Reserve," the awesome FW 2009 Nail Trend color that mixes gray and lavender.

Thus, time for a report and a review of how the nail wears in real life!! This one is a definite "Euridice YAY!" It applied so nicely and looked great in two coats. The gray is subtle and neutral, but the lavender gives it a bit of color. The really cool thing about this nail color is that the gray and lavender can give off a kind of muddy look. At times my nails look purpley gray or grayish purple, but also a kind of putty shade, depending on the lighting. Fascinating!!

I tried to capture the look of this nail color. Below are pictures taken inside but with lots of natural light coming in. I tried to take different angles from the light. Gee, my cuticles and skin need some work, eek!



Well, let me snap a few more in the evening indoor, not in any direct light source. Maybe this will show the taupe-ness that I am noticing.


Yay!! Very pleased with this nail polish, and looking forward to wearing it this fall with dusty lilac handbags!!