Makeup Palette & May's Giveaway

Hi!~

Finally a proper review again! I'm behind on my need-t-do-a-review-on list!

Don't expect anything from me next wee, since I'm moving into dorm this Sunday and won't have net connection for a week or more! Yuck! When can I get my fix? LOL But I'll try to check back from a friends's computer who lives there.

Anyway, here is an eyeshadow palette I bought a week ago. I saw swatches of a new line, Stars Makeup Haven's singles eyeshadows on The Next Best Thing to Going Shopping Yourself. They are beautiful! And cheap!!! So I hopped to the website and started hunting. There are awesome things there and they are dirt ceap. You can buy MAC pigments and they carry stuffs to press pigments in general. Okay, I'm not an expert in these press-your-own-eyeshadow things, but you can find everything needed there. Also, you can create your own palette picking from the e/s singles! 15 pans are $49.95 and 28 pans for $79.95. To top it, you can buy the palettes empty and MAC pots fit them, so you can depot your MACs and put them into these black palettes.

In the end I didn't choose this option. Oh, why would I? Of course I went for something cheaper and ended with a 96 pieces palette for $24.95. You can see it below.

I wasn't sure of its content thanks to lack of information. It looks good, right? It does look. I couldn't find blogger reviews on the internet, but some of other products from SMH. All I could come up with is this is similar to Coastal Scents' palettes. I was like what is Coastal Scents? Never heard of it....I hoped the shadows are miniatures or alters of the SMH single eyeshadows which are good quality and popular. I hoped.

I bought a pencil contour brush too which costed 2.95! They have cheap brushes and they seem good. Mine performs well so far.

So I paid and waited. Service is good. My status was changed to "shipped" in an hour! wow! And a week later I got my package. That's normal for internationals.

Opening the envelope I found a sleek, black box with no name or whatever written on it, only the ingredients on its back:

And the actual palette:

Pretty black plastic, but don't you dare touch it barehand! It'll show your fingerprints! LOL Not to mention scratches. I'm planning on sewing a pouch for it.

So, as you've seen above, the colors are pretty as they are. But once applying they are not so good. Cheep stuffs are usually crappy. *sigh*

I was like, oh no! I never bought super cheap stuffs, so I don't know how it feels to be disappointed. The shadows were like loose eyeshadows. Hard to apply, messy. Some hardly show up on me! Others were quite pigmented, but flew everywhere when swiping!

Resolve:n no swiping movements, just pat it on eyelids till the desired color payoff!

I don't like pigments and loose eyeshadows, don't use them, thus I suck handling them. Take me some getting used to. Now I'm better with them. Thanks to constant playing with the palette for 3 days now.

Some shadows are hard to get on the brush and they hardly show up on skin. Others are more co-operate, but that means messiness and you have to use them lightly, patting gently and precisely, or the particles fall off and you'll have color all under your eyes. For that you can use translucent powder, but that's just so much hassle!

Yesterday I did a little research on Coastal Scents. Their stuffs are for makeup "artists" working in salons, doing wedding and such makeup. You know that stuff.......Personally I don't fancy these 'artists' and their material. The majority of them suck along with their stuffs! Would never let them make me up @_@

Ahem, back to coastal Scents. I read people saying this palette (from SMH) is similar to CS's, so I wondered if it's the same. Actually CS doesn't carry these colors and not in this combination. But companies often buy stuffs from others, alter them and sell as own product.

The black palette tough is them same. It has a mirror which is not magnifying and I found not useable, and two double ended sponge applicators. These are the worst quality sponge applicators I've ever seen in my life! The sponges are flat and rough! But I find them useable as liners when your eyeliner brush is not by hand.

I took photos of two look I made the last days. One green, one blue. No foundation, undereye concealer and no eyebrow powder or pencil was applied, sorry! Also no e/s base! I barely wanted to play.

This has 3 greens and a silver as liner if I remeber correctly, although the ones on the lower lids might be different shades. No difference, right? It looks ok on the pic, but in person, believe me....it looked weird and maybe horrible on me. With my skintone and no other makeup. Not to mention I don't wear such intense colors.

I was able to catch an afternoon sunlight. See how limey it looks?

Now onto the blue eye. Sorry for the lighting. It's horrible!

This has 3 or 4 (?) blues on top lids and 3 on bottom lids. Also, grey was used above the crease, blended.

I like how it looks here, but going outside like this? It reminds me of the '80s. Am I right, or was this eye makeup poplurar in the '70s? Dunno. I shouldn't have put blue on my bottom lids, surely.

All in all, with the proper technique (patting and dabbing gently) you can blend the colors beautifully. Try not to swipe or the colors will fade! Keep in mind, that some light colors are horribly sheer already.
I made swatches, but not all 96 colors. You can use these shadows wet and dry and they look more pretty and intense wet.
They are paired, the one the left side is applied dry while the right side is wet.

See that some are invisible?

In this third pic you can see the far right column from the palette. All of them. (except the red, orange and two pinks) I'd say these are the most useable, the ones I might use this fall.

For the price so many eyeshadows are a great deal. The main turn down is where would anybody use such colors as that orange??? Not all of them are acceptable as everday and night shades. Plus many are warm tones, while warms don't fit me. Those who can pull of both warm and cool tones are lucky!

I don't like how sheer many colors are, but applied wet they are too much for daily wear.

NOTE: I experienced eye itching the last two days. I don't know if it's caused by these eyeshadows or by a new mascara I started using at the same time...I'll see to it by continuos usage. Sometimes my eyes get irritated on their own too. Like on weekends when I don't wear any makeup.





Now to someting else. I found May's blog just Yesterday and saw she had a giveaway going on!

Congratulation on having 134 followers ATM!

Here are the tings one can win:

Check it out and be a follower if you found her interesting! ;D