This is something I’ve been meaning to do a while  – swatching my collection.  Cream eye products are something I use daily as a base for my eyeshadow, on top of my primer.  They give an added boost to your eyeshadows’ staying power and make the colors of your shadow more vibrant.  I mainly have paint pots, but a few other brands have snuck in there as well.

These swatches were all applied with a synthetic brush and no primer.  These pictures were taken without flash.

L to R top row: Painterly p/p, Girlfriendly p/p, Coral Crepe p/p, Fresco Rose p/p, Quite Natural p/p, Benefit Skinny Jeans cream e/s, Delft p/p, MUFE Flash Color No.3, Blackground p/p

L to R bottom row: Bare Study p/p, Benefit RSVP cream e/s, Kryolan White Aquacolor, Kryolan Iridescent Plum Aquacolor

I realized after I started posting this that I had left out one of my browns, Constructivist paint pot, so I swatched it with the rest of my browns and took another picture.

L to R: Constructivist p/p, Quite Natural p/p, Benefit Skinny Jeans cream e/s, Blackground p/p

So here’s some closeups of the swatches.

L to R: Painterly p/p, Girlfriendly p/p, Coral Crepe p/p, Fresco Rose p/p, Quite Natural p/p

• Painterly p/p: Painterly is my go to base and it’s probably easy to see why – it’s very close to my skintone so it will work with any color eyeshadow and because it’s matte and very opaque, it does a good job of concealing darkness/redness on eyelids as well.  Nice smooth texture.

• Girlfriendly p/p: This was a limited edition product (I hate when they do that!).  It’s a matte, dusty pink that would work well with pinks, burgundies, purples, and even browns.  The texture is identical to Painterly.  I don’t reach for this often but I should.

• Coral Crepe p/p: Coral Crepe is a satin-y bright coral.  It looks great under oranges and corals (of course) and brightens up browns as well.  The color is a bit sheer.  Unfortunately this was a limited edition as well, which makes no sense to me – this is definitely a color that is missing in MAC’s permanent line.

• Fresco Rose p/p: This is a light pink shade with a soft shimmer.  Truthfully I don’t think I’ve used it but once or twice – it’s almost identical to Girl Friendly but has the added shimmer.

• Quite Natural p/p: Quite natural is a very matte brown.  The texture is a bit difficult to blend as you can see in the swatch – it gets a little clumpy and isn’t easy to smooth out.  This could be used on brows as well.

• Constructivist p/p: One of my most used and loved paint pots.  This is a pearly brown (not shimmery, but pearly) with a nice smooth texture that blends out great.  I use it as a base for smokey brown eyes or shimmery browns.

L to R: Benefit Skinny Jeans cream e/s, Delft p/p, MUFE Flash Color No. 3, Blackground p/p

• Benefit Skinny Jeans Creaseless Cream e/s: By far, my favorite cream eyeshadow… Skinny Jeans is a silver brown color with multi-colored shimmer.  It look great with browns, silvers/grays, black.  It also looks fantastic by itself, blended out.  The texture of this is amazing – super creamy and easy to blend.

• Delft p/p: Delft is a dark blue with silver shimmer.  I find it to be a bit sheer because I can see my skin color showing through, but otherwise it’s a good base for blues, greens, and even purples.

• MUFE Flash Color No. 3: This silver flash color from MUFE is very creamy, very metallic, and very opaque.  However, it is not a good base for keeping your eyeshadow on and tends to slide around.  This product is better suited for special occasions, Halloween, or New Years when you’re looking for something to stick your glitter on to.  That said, if you can find an effective way to keep this product from creasing, it literally looks like liquid silver on the skin.  Amazing!

• Blackground p/p: Blackground is a creamy black base with multi-colored shimmer.  It’s more blue-black than true-black, which is apparent when it’s blended out, so if you’re looking for something very very dark, this might not be the best color.  This is an all-around good base for smokey eyes.

L to R: Barestudy p/p, Benefit RSVP cream e/s, Kryolan White Aquacolor, Kryolan Iridescent Plum Aquacolor

• Barestudy p/p: Barestudy is a beige/champagne color with shimmer.  I really do not like the texture of the product once it’s on my lid and so don’t use it often.  This is a great base for golds and neutrals that have shimmer.  Some people like to use this as their everyday base, but I don’t like it for two reasons – it has color, and it’s not matte, so it’s going to interfere with the color of the shadow that’s being applied on top of it.

• Benefit RSVP Creaseless cream e/s: This is another champagne color similar to Barestudy, but far superior in terms of texture.  Benefit’s cream eyeshadows are really amazing products.

• Kryolan White Aquacolor: Aquacolors are water-activated and this white one is a great base for bright colors, true opaque whites, or any shade that you need a white base to show its true color (for example, turquoises can look muddy when they’re applied directly to your skin, but they look bright and exactly like they do in the pan when they’re applied on a white base).

• Kryolan Iridescent Plum Aquacolor: Iridescent Plum is a gorgeous, blue violet with iridescent shimmer.  This is a great base for purples or blues.  These Aquacolors have a great consistency and blend nicely.

SO… I was pulling pictures off my camera and I came across quite a lot of FOTD pictures and the like… Just random things that I never got around to posting.  I honestly don’t remember what I used, but I wanted to post up some of the pictures, because I quite liked some of them, and thought it would be a shame for them never to see the light of the day.

On this one I was just messing around, and I tried smokey eyes different ways on each eye.

On this one I was just messing around, and I tried smokey eyes different ways on each eye.

I definitely like this side better.

Nude matte browns…

This look used only two pigments: Sunpepper and Provence.

Blue-eyed girls, this pigment is calling your name!

Smokey grey eye and some bad skin

Cut-crease…

I think this is probably the best cut crease I’ve ever done.  I got a lot of compliments on it and I was really happy with how it turned out!

There are some tools you never realize how badly you need until you’re without them, and I found this out when I lost my pencil sharpener.  It was a cheapie from the drugstore, but it was able to sharpen all sizes of lip and eye liners that I own, including the hard to sharpen NYX Jumbo pencils.  After I’d scraped my eye a few times with dull, unsharpened pencils, I decided it was time to go ahead and replace it – and while I was at it I figured, why not go for an upgrade to a name brand sharpener?  Surely, they must be better?  And sleeker and cuter of course.  That may have slightly affected my decision.  I searched at MAC first and I saw the dual-ended sharpener on the website.

At $6.50, it’s priced affordably.  It’s definetly sleek and sexy looking.  All of my pencils should fit in either of the ends perfectly.  And because it’s MAC, it should be awesome.  This story should have a totally happy ending, right?

Wrong.

So first of all this sharpener is made out of the cheapest, thinnest plastic.  It just feels like it’s going to break.  I guess that is entirely a subjective thing, but I really don’t want any of my products, even something like a pencil sharpener, to feel that it is so fragile that I could snap it by clenching my fingers too tight.  The entire sharpener is 3 parts – the large sharpener at one end, the small sharpener at the other, and the clear part in the middle to separate them and store the shavings.  This is a nice idea…  But unfortunately the sharpeners don’t screw into the clear plastic center, they merely press on tight.  And I’m using that word tight very lightly; I’m constantly pulling one end off by accident and then the shavings end up everywhere.

Besides just the sloppy design flaws, my biggest issue overall is with the sharpeners themselves.  When you sharpen your pencils, you want them to come out looking similar to what they where when you first bought them, perhaps a tad sharper.  The best way I could describe how your pencils are going to come out is…  Well, do you remember sharpening your wooden No. 2′s back in the day?  Those traditional pencil sharpeners gave you a long point with lots of exposed lead, which is very good when you’re writing with a pencil -  but it’s terrible when you’re using it for makeup.  This sharpener eats up a ton of your pencil in the process, and unfortunately, you don’t end up with a precise tip, but a long tip with product that will break off very easily.  The blade also continues to cut into the product while you sharpen, further weakening the tip.  Oh and by the way, it completely mutilated – but didn’t in the least bit sharpen – my NYX Jumbo Pencil.

Look at how nasty these tips look!

In conclusion I guess I would have to say I just really, REALLY do not recommend buying this sharpener from MAC.  In my experience, my pencils look chewed up, the tips break, and I’m not getting any kind of smooth, sharp pencil tip that’s useful for makeup.  So I’m back to my search for a good sharpener.  I don’t know if I’ll be heading back to the drug store, but I’ll definitely be doing more research this time!

Ah, the no-makeup look…  Nothing quite as elusive as that fabulous makeup look that gives the illusion of having naturally flawless, glowing skin while still balancing the look by not making your use of makeup overally obvious.  I wanted to try this look out today and I decided to use my airbrush to attempt the subtle look. Applying the airbrush foundation gives a great canvas, and applying the blush and contour by airbrush allows for a much lighter application, so the colors come out looking much more natural on the skin.  On the eyes I used very little shadow for slight definition.  I have to say I think I did pretty well – three people approached me today at work and said ‘you’re not wearing makeup today!’ or ‘you should never wear makeup – you look great!’.  I think this is a look I will go for more often.  It does take more effort and attention to get my skin looking so even, but I think the result was worth it.

Face:

• Benefit Erase Paste in Fair under eyes
• Amazing Cosmetics concealer in fair on blemishes
• OCC Skin Foundation in Y1
• OCC Blush in Hush
• OCC Crush to contour
• OCC Lustre Highlighter
• MAC Prep and Prime Powder
• By Candelight MSF

Eyes:

• TFSI
• Painterly p/p
• Brule e/s on lid
• Shroom e/s on center of lid
• Soft Brown e/s in crease
• By Candelight MSF on browbone
• Naked Lunch e/s on inner corner
• Fascinating Eye Kohl on waterline
• Tarte Lights, Camera, Splashes waterproof mascara
• Omega e/s on brows

Lips:

• Long Stem Rose Slimshine l/s

I just got my hair touched up and some lighter blonde highlights… I feel like my complexion brightens up so much right after I get my color done! Anyway, I felt like this FOTD complemented both my eye color and my hair well. These pictures were taken on my new Samsung Captivate. Not bad for a phone right!?

Face:

• Benefit Erase Paste Concealer in Fair under eyes
• Amazing Concealer in Fair on blemishes
• MUFE HD Foundation in 110
• MAC Prep & Prime Powder
• Emote Blush to contour
• Illamasqua Blush in Unrequited
• By Candelight MSF

Eyes:

• TFSI
• Painterly p/p
• Amberlights e/s
• Mulch e/s
• Embark e/s
• Soft Brown e/s
• Blanc Type e/s
• Nylon e/s
• Smolder Eye Kohl
• Stila 24 Hour Liquid Liner in Black
• MUFE Smoky Lash mascara

Lips:

• Hot Gossip l/s
• Love Nectar l/g