Just a little tint from Axiology

Recently Axiology sent a package of products for me to try out and review. This Tinted Dew Multi Stick is the second of the three products. As always my opinions are my own.

Axiology is a brand that is committed to creating sustainable products that have zero waste to them. There is no plastic or metal in this tube. If you look at the bottom you can see it operates like an old-fashioned push pop (without the stick and instead of ice cream you get makeup.)

You simply push the bottom to have the product rise up the top. I did push a little too far with my first try and then i simply press the product back down. It is simple really, but move quickly as the heat from your hand can melt the product and I imagine it would be messier to push down when warm.

These are multi use sticks. They can be used as lip, cheek or eye products. If you have limited space to get ready or a small travel makeup bag they are perfect. One product to do many things, at least that is the theory.

For me personally i don’t like putting things on my eyes that I have put on my mouth. So I used a brush whenever I used it on my lips and I ended up using a cotton swab to take product off of the top of the tube when putting it on my eyes and then using a fingertip to blend it across the lid.

You can use the product directly across all surfaces but i am prone to eye infections so I like to be a little extra cautious.

The first product i tried was the Color Cream and while it too could be used on all three parts of the face, I found it was the perfect shade of cream blush for me. You can find the details in the post about the Color Cream. The link will take you there. With the Tinted Dew Multi Stick, the formula is a little more sheer.

The color i am using is Humble. On my cheeks it just tends to blend out. Part of that is because it is a more sheer formula. Most of it however is simply my skin tone. As a cream blush this simply doesn’t work for me in this shade. If I had a lighter toned skin then it would be a very good low to no makeup look. But on me this shade simply doesn’t fit. I need a deeper tone. I think it would be very worth while to try out deeper shades, especially for summer wear when I tend to use tinted moisturizers instead of foundations.

Then I tried this Tinted Dew on the eye lids and lips. On the lips it feels like a lip balm. A creamy lip balm. The shade is my lips but better, maybe slightly more pink. It is comfortable and a really good low key look.

While I will happily wear it on my lips, I love it on my eyes. A little bit gives a light flush to the lids. A little bit more deepens the flush. It is buildable so you can go from barely there to a deeper tone. You are never going to apply enough of this to get to a deep red shade. It builds up to varying stages of flushed. The pictures were of me building this as deep a it would go. Part of that may be the shade, but i think a lot of it is that is is a more sheer tint. When I tried to pair it with the color cream to get a darker shade, the color cream took over and it looked like just the color cream on the lids.

However I did pair it with an elf shadow stick. The rose gold color was very close in tone to the Tinted Dew so it blended well and gave me just a little shimmer. And I think that is the key, if you are going to pair it with something, go with another cream formula. (I tried powdered shadows and that just didn’t work). Also go with something that blends in tone to the Tinted Dew. These are low key makeup products so don’t use them when you want to be dramatic. Casual everyday use is where these products shine. Let them be what they are and they work beautifully. The Tinted Dew from Axiology stays in place all day and look good while staying around.

Let’s Talk Uoma Beauty Salute to the Sun Mascara

This is the second item I have tried from Uoma Beauty, the first being some fabulous lip liners that I need to remember to reach for more often. This is the UOMA Beauty Salute to the sun Mascara.

I have to say this mascara is both delightful and frustrating all at the same time. First the delightful bit. Are you ready? First with eyes open.

Then with eyes shut.

Can you see the delightful?

Yeah, this mascara will make the lashes long and thick. It has a fluffy wand. Also it is a nourishing mascara and not only feels really weightless on the lashes but my lashes don’t dry out at all when I wear this mascara. It hasn’t flaked on me and it hasn’t caused me any problems. I do use a waterproof makeup remover on it even though it isn’t water proof because that just makes it come off easier.

The real issue is that it has started clumping on me. There is a little you can see at the end of my closed lash, but I just used a lash comb after the pic and it took them off. So that isn’t the problem.

In the photo you can start to see the wand getting a little clumpy. If you look a little closer at the tube you can see it is getting very gunky as well.

I like this mascara but it took very few uses for it to start getting this way. For me this is a waste of product and it means that I will not be able to use this mascara for as long a I would use other mascaras.

In general I throw away mascaras at the end of three months. I only keep a few open so at the end of three months i have used all of the product (or most of it) in the tube. I can already tell you that this won’t last the three months. I can push some of the product back into the tube with the wand, but some of it will have to be wiped off and will be lost just so that the tube doesn’t become crusty.

Here is the deal though. It is a fabulous mascara. I just won’t be getting as many uses out of it as i would any of my other mascaras. somewhere deep in my thrifty soul that bothers me. However if asked if I would repurchase the UOMA Beauty Salute to the sun Mascara, I would have to say yes. it is a fantastic product. However i would more than likely purchase it when i know I am going to an event where I need to wear mascara for a long time and where even though I don’t wear false lashes, I know other people will be wearing them. This won’t give me flash lashes but it will make them thick and full. I just simply wouldn’t open the tube until I was getting ready for the event. And then after the event i would wear the mascara every day until it was gone and I could no longer wear it any more. Because this is not a mascara you want to let sit. Open, use and be aware that you won’t get to keep it long but while it is here, your lashes will be fabulous.

Using the Pink Lipps Soft Matte Primer

I think we all know by this point that I love primers. And the balm style ones are a particular favorite formula of mine. I like the control that style gives actually. i can concentrate on placing the product where it needs to be and then blend it outwards so that it covers everything that needs to be covered.

I know this can be down with liquids, and I do enjoy many liquid primers, but I do find that this gives me a greater control. And so on to the Pink Lipps Soft matte Primer.

With the Pinklipps formula, control is actually very important. According to the brand website…

Pink Lipps Soft Matte Primer will keep your foundation looking fresh and pristine all day with this velvety mattifying primer. It glides on smoothly and helps disguise the look of pores and imperfections for a flawless makeup application.

It is a very soft formula. It is mattifying and it blurs out pores. On me it evens out my skin tone taking down the reddish tones and allowing me a more neutral and unified shade to my skin so that my makeup is even. I will even say that it does help extend the life of my makeup.

However, it is a bit more of a waxy feel than many of the balms I have tried before. I’m sure this does help it’s spread-ability as it is a formula that can be easily spread across the skin without needing to be warmed up. And when it is used in moderation it does blend out well and feels weightless.

The key is moderation. When I went in too heavy with this primer, it felt heavy and waxy. I also had issues with it feeling greasy throughout the day and as a consequence I had to reach for my compact more often. If I went in light, then i was fine. For me I used the back of my nail to scoop out a portion,. and then dotted it on the parts of my face I wanted to blur out the pores and then I blended it out. The few dots I had covered my entire face but given the way I aplied it special attention was paid to the areas where I wanted the product the most.

The trick is really moderation in application. If you don’t apply too much it is a nice light formula, albeit slightly waxy. If you apply too much, it is a waxy and greasy mess. I will probably use this product until it is gone because it is nice enough that I have no problems using it. And since I only use a little at each go it will take me a while to work through. However the waxiness isn’t y favorite thing. In addition i am testing this out in the winter when my skin is the driest, It’s tendency to become slightly greasy does not auger well for summer time use for me. While I will use it since it is here, I doubt very much that I will repurchase this Pink Lipps Soft Matte Primer.

A primer from AOA Studios

I am a big fan of balm style primers. They are actually my preferred version. Don’t get me wrong, I will use just about any style of primer, because I just love primers. And that is a love that just grows the older I get. If you have fine lines, primers can be your best friend.

I also love a good deal.

I periodically dip into the Shop Miss A website and pick out things to try. It is interesting. For those of you who have never been to the Shop Miss A site, it is an on-line dollar store. Most items are between $1 and $1.88. Some of the items are well worth the price and others I would give a pass. Oddly some of the things I have ordered from Shop Miss A I thought were not going to be good but when they arrived I was just amazed by. I was actually amazed by the quality of their makeup brushes for example.

AOA Studios is one of the brands featured on the site and I picked up this primer on my last order just to give it a try. It is about the size of a single eyeshadow. And to be honest, the product is about as deep as a single eyeshadow pan.

When I initially took the product out (I used the back of my nail to get it out) it was a little crumbly. With the heat of my hands it melted and became an easily spreadable consistency. It is white in the pan, but on the skin it goes invisible and there is no white cast remaining. It is listed as a blurring primer and it did really well filling in fine lines and blurring out pores. it actually worked better than I thought it would.

In fact I was very impressed by how well it worked. However, I did find I needed a little bit more primer than I might with another balm style primer, Like the Tatcha Silk Canvas. And there are no skin care benefits.

This AOA Studios Blurfection Primer was however only $1 as opposed to the $52 Tatcha Primer. So I wasn’t expecting the same skin care benefits.

Because you need a little bit more of this primer, it does not last long. I was worried about it potentially drying out in the shallow pan. The truth is that it isn’t a concern. I used this primer for one entire week and there is almost no product left in the pan. $1 for one week’s worth of a good primer isn’t that bad. I would definitely order this again. In fact I could see making this a travel staple. It is small enough to go into a travel makeup kit and as long as I wasn’t going to be gone more than a week, it would serve beautifully. I don’t know how long it would last in the pan on it’s own without drying out so I don’t think I would pick up a bunch of them to stock, but i could definitely see myself picking this AOA Studios Primer up before my next trip to take with me.

Using the HIDE Invisible Oil Free Foundation

This is one of those foundations that gave me a bit of a run during my trial. I received this bottle in my Boxycharm premium and tried it out with the other makeup that arrived in the subscription box. I really enjoyed the first use. And then I looked at the bottom of the container and saw the expiration date. It was written 1/8/2023. As the subscription box didn’t arrive until mid January, I thought that Boxy sent an expired foundation. I sent in a message and they responded right away with an e-mail letting me know that instead of month first it was written month second so the foundation actually doesn’t expire until August 1st, 2023.

Which was a relief. Foundation is one of those products that is by definition put all over the face and so I really pay attention to those expiration dates. Actually foundation and all eye products are really expiration dates I don’t ever mess around with.

So relieved that it was not expired, I went ahead with my foundation test of this HIDE Foundation. According to the product page…

Achieve the perfect natural look with this soft matte foundation that easily builds to medium – full coverage. The custom oil-free formula is made to resist sweat and won’t clog your pores.

They also claim that this is medium to full coverage and is a buildable formula. Although listed as a premium foundation it retails for $30. Which is a pretty reasonable price. (One Foundation I consider premium, and well worth the price, is the Koh Gen Do Aqua Foundation which retails for $96 if you are looking for a comparison).

The container feels like cheap plastic. It is square and white with black lettering. It looks nice but it doesn’t look expensive. However you should never judge a book by it’s cover, or a foundation by it’s packaging. This foundation has a pump and I generally found that two pumps would give me enough product to cover my face. This shade is my perfect shade. It blends beautifully and gave great coverage. I used a brush as an applicator and then went back in with a damp makeup sponge to smooth out any brush strokes.

Like the description claims, it gives a soft matte finish. It is also a long wearing foundation. The longest I had it on was ten hours and it wore beautifully throughout. Personally it is really rare for me to be in makeup longer than ten hours. So this duration was perfect for me. Start to finish it looked good.

There are a couple of considerations though. The first is fine lines. If you don’t use a primer, it will emphasize those fine lines. Interestingly enough if I wore the foundation without a primer the lines were emphasized but they didn’t get worse throughout the day. So if I could keep the foundation from seeping into the fine lines during application then I was good all day. This foundation worked best with a pore filling primer such as the Tatcha Silk Canvas Primer or the Elf Poreless Putty Primer. Those were the two I had the best luck with when using this primer. The pore filling nature of both of them (along with the added Tatcha skin care benefits) worked really well.

It also helps if your skin is hydrated before applying this foundation as that helps keep the foundation from filling those fine lines. For me, part of that is that my skin is a bit more dry in the winter and we have had the central heat running more often during my trial of this foundation.

The only other issue I had with this foundation was when i tried to build it up. One application (2 pumps worth of product) gave me absolutely beautiful medium coverage application. When I tried to build it up closer to full coverage, it tended to look heavier. With the medium coverage it was light and beautiful and felt like I was wearing nothing at all. Even though it didn’t feel any heavier with more product, it looked heavier. Personally medium coverage is what I go for so I am perfectly fine with this. I feel no need to build it up to full coverage. If you want full coverage, it is going to look a little heavy.

Over all I really enjoyed this foundation. I will happily use the rest of this bottle and when it is out (hopefully before August) I will certainly consider purchasing a replacement bottle of this HIDE Invisible Oil Free Foundation.

Using the Stila One Step Color Correcting Primer

You know I love primers. I think anyone who reads any of my posts regularly knows I love primers. They are a great way to even out skin tone so that the rest of your face products don’t have to work as hard. I have in fact had a good primer make a not so good foundation better. (It isn’t a miracle worker, but it can sometimes give a much needed lift.) I find primers can also help prevent some foundations from sinking into fine lines, which I appreciate more the older I get.

This primer’s specialty is in skin tone correcting and Brightening. It is the Stila One Step Correct Skin Tone Correcting and Brightening Primer. So what it does is really in the name. But just so we are all clear on what this primer is supposed to do…

Primes, color-corrects, brightens, and nourishes skin for a flawless face with no fus. Transparent, priming perfector creates a radiant canvas for your makeup. So it’s your skin, only brighter. Helps reduce imperfections and improve skin texture. Hydrates, balances, and nourishes the skin. Contains 3 color-correcting pigments to even out complexion. Designed for all skin types and skin tones.
Stila

I have enjoyed many Stila products over the years. My favorite product from the brand was actually a primer (Lingerie Soufflé Primer) which has long since been discontinued. I kept the jar around for a long time after it was empty because it was so pretty. The product was even better than the jar, but that no longer matters as it is gone now. But because I really loved that Primer I had really high hopes for this one. Plus it was really nice to see a product from a brand I once really liked reappear in my world.

The look of this in the container is quite fun. It reminds me of those marshmallow rope candies you used to be able to buy. Perhaps you still can, I just can’t recall seeing them recently. And I can see where the pink, green and purplish colors were chosen. They are the classic color correcting shades. You will find them in pretty much every color correcting palette.

Curious to see how they all played together I dispensed the product as I would any other primer and applied it to my face. For me this means pumping it out onto the back of my hand, dotting it onto the spots where I need priming the most (Usually across the bridge of my nose and cheeks, along my chin and around the fine lines around my mouth (on the sides, and yes I use primer like fine line spackle to fill in the lines so my foundation doesn’t go in there.) and then I blend.

when dispensed the colors blend together into a grayish paste. I applied it and there were streaks of green and pink. I was feeling particularly red on the day I took these photos. I am not normally that red but allergies were striking. So I thought it the perfect time to try this out for it’s color correcting abilities.

I found it very interesting. The primer went on very wet and needed time to dry down. The color correcting was fine until it was blended out and then the redness didn’t really go away. There was a slight improvement but it wasn’t major in the color correcting department. My skin did feel hydrated and smooth. Makeup application over this primer was really nice. Products applied more smoothly and looked great. It also filled in my fine lines well and had a lightly glowy kind of look to it. The color correcting was minimal at best. However as a general brightening and smoothing primer it worked well.

I did think that maybe I didn’t apply enough to get the color correcting benefits, but when I applied more the same thing happened. It is a wet formula and does take a while to dry down. The more you apply, the longer it takes to dry down and the more likely it is to look greasy instead of glowy. It is also only a minor color correcting formula. While I don’t think that this would do much good for anyone looking to blend out rosatia or major discolorations, it does some minot corrections. It also create a nice surface on which to apply the rest of the makeup and it did, over all, make my makeup look better and last longer. which makes it a pretty good general primer. Just remember to use sparingly and let it dry down before continuing with the rest of your makeup and don’t expect too much color correcting out of this Stila One Step primer and you will be fine.

Using the Beauty Bakerie Flour Setting Powder in Oat

I’ll be honest, for a long time I didn’t use a lot of setting powder. I saw videos of people doing their makeup and saw them ‘baking’ their face with powder and thought ‘what a waste of powder. I tended to use pressed powder for mid-day patting off of the shine and then a big fluffy brush with a little bit of setting powder to help control the shine when I knew it was going to be a humid day and shine was inevitable.

The reason I didn’t use a lot of powder was because I thought it made me look powdery. Which it did. With some powders. While I still don’t bake, I do use setting powder to set my makeup. I tend to go with finer milled powders with a slight tint to them so they don’t brighten my face too much. Unless the powder comes with a usable puff I tend to apply them with the round end of a damp makeup sponge. I dip the sponge in the powder and dot my face then I go in with a fluffy brush to spread the powder out.

I suspect that is on no professionals makeup application list but the reasons I do it are rather simple. I dot the sponge on the sections of my face where I tend to get the shiniest because my makeup has worn off, like the high points. I don’t cover the face because I find this dispersal method leaves the most powder where I put it and applies just a thinner layer on the places I don’t really need it just to even out the look. For me, it keeps me from looking powdery.

But not all powders are the same. Some are not finely milled enough so they will always sort of look powdery no matter what I do and some are so finely milled that they send up a cloud of powder into the air and I always feel like I am powdering the air more than my skin.

This Flour Setting Powder from Beauty Bakerie is right in the middle. It is finely milled enough that it doesn’t leave a powdery look and it is not too finely milled. It is as Goldilocks’ said, just right. The shade I am using is called Oat and while translucent there is a soft tone to it that keeps it from being bright white against the skin. For me that actually helps blend it better into the skin.

The container is not huge, which makes it perfect for travel. And inside the container has an inner plastic wheel that you can turn to close off the holes that dispense the powder. It means that you won’t have powder slipping through the holes as the container bounces around your makeup bag. I have had many a powder blowout during travel and it is really nice to know I won’t have that with this powder.

The container comes in a little flour bag as well which I think is just utterly adorable. And while adorable isn’t everything this powder looks good, applies well and locks in the makeup well. So the adorable is just the cherry on top of the sundae. I will admit I don’t really want to throw the outer packaging away. But it is paper that can go in the recycling, so I suppose it will just have a new life elsewhere. All in all I found this Flour Setting powder from Beauty Bakerie to be a fantastic setting powder.

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Let’s Talk Lips: Beauty Bakerie Lips

Beauty Bakerie sent a lovely package to me with products to try and you know my love of lip products made me dive right for this. The fact that it is a perfect holiday red just made it extra fabulous to try out. I am starting to put together my holiday look. Thus far I have the heels and the earrings, everything in between is a mystery. So holiday shades are top on the list to try.

And this Lip Whip Matte Liquid Lipstick in Mon Cheri does not disappoint. The red is a true blue red,, which is the type that does look best on my. A lot of the pinky reds look a little too pin on me and just don’t look quite right. But color aside, there is a lot to talk about with a lipstick.

First, there is application. With a dark liquid lipstick the wand really matters. I have one gorgeous liquid lip that has a rounded tip at the end of the wand and no matter how careful I am I make a mess with it. I often look like a three year old who got into their mother’s makeup.

“I’m pretty too mommy!” is fun but not usually the look I am going for when attending a meeting or going out with friends.

The wand on this Lip Whip is a triangular shape with the divot in the center to hold product. The point is pointy enough that I can outline my lips and then fill in the rest of the lip which makes it neat to apply with no messy bits. And in case you are wondering I do know that in the picture my bottom lip is slightly crooked. I didn’t notice until after several hours of wear and decided to leave it. It isn’t as noticeable when zoomed out and usually when I go into fix something like that I just end up with giant clown lips instead of actually fixing the problem. That is of course user error and not something anyone else can be blamed for.

Incidentally. if you ae someone who when you apply dark lipsticks ends up thinking that they look like they are frowning even when they aren’t (my lips tend to do that) try not going to the outer corners of your lips. Leave about a pinkie’s width of unpainted lips in the corners. It isn’t noticeable unless you walk around with your mouth wide open like a landed fish and it stops the darker shades from making you look like you are frowning. If you think your pinkies are too big, use a pencil. Put it across your lips and use that for gauging distance. I don’t have many fabulous makeup tricks, but this is one of my favorites.

My other favorite is that if your lips are not perfectly symmetrical, which mine aren’t, then instead of pressing them together after application, put a tissue or cloth between your lips to blot instead of rubbing together. It keeps the lines you took care to draw exactly where you put them.

So application went well with this Lip Whip, how did it do with the fine lines?

Fabulous is the answer. As you can see from the photo, there is no seeping into the fine lines. I was thrilled with that and honestly nothing more needs to e said other than Fabulous.

Drying down is an issue with liquid lips and I can say it is a bit of an issue with this one. This does dry down relatively quickly so any corrections you need to make, make them quickly. You have a little adjustment time, but not much. when it dries down it goes matte and it stays in place. At the moment my lips are in good shape. I use a lib scrub twice a week and an overnight lip Mask (Tatcha Kissu Lip Mask) every night before bed. In the winter it is the only way to keep my lips from chapping. when this dries down you will see any rough bits your lips have. It is the same for every liquid lip though so this shouldn’t be a surprise. I personally liked the level of dryness that this Lip Whip Gives. It isn’t too dry but it is a solid dry. With red lips I prefer this because i hate leaving bright lip smears all over things. It is less of a problem with a more neutral lip, or at least it doesn’t bother me as much, but i like this level of dry with a dark shade. It is a comfortable dry.

In this post you will see two lip swatches on my hand. One looks wet and shows the lipstick as it is first swatched. I then let the swatch dry to see how long it would last. The day I wore it, I washed my hand five times with soap and water, used hand sanitizer three times, followed by hand cream and then I took a shower and went to bed. The second picture of a swatch is the next morning. There is a little color fading. but the product is still there. So you can say it has some longevity to it. The color dimming when wearing it was minimal throughout the day for me. To remove it i did need a makeup remover though. Soap and water simply didn’t cut it. So that is something to remember, However, it did not stain my lips. When i used a makeup remover all of the lipstick came off with no stain left behind.

Which I found quite impressive. i figured anything that could hold on that long would leave a stain. It did not.

Over all I was very pleased with this liquid lip. It makes me want to try out some of the other shades. And for me, I love a matte liquid lip. If I want to brighten it up I can always apply a gloss over the top. This lip actually took well to gloss on top, just wait until it dries to apply the gloss. For me this is a clear winner and I will be purchasing more shades in the future.

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Trying out the Venus Immortals Palette From Lime Crime

For the past week or so I have been playing around with the Venus Immortals Palette from Lime Crime. I’ll admit I sort of stalked this palette on line for a while before deciding to purchase it. I have the Venus Exposed Palette and it is one of my favorite go to palettes if i want something quick and easy to work with. The colors are nice and it can give me great everyday looks or lean into drama with very little effort.

I know this Immortals Palette wasn’t going to be the same thing. I knew looking at it that this was not going to be an everyday palette. But I liked the color story and to be honest I was awash with a sea of neutrals palettes and this just appealed to me. Then in my stalking phase I saw they had a sale and I purchased it.

This was an interesting palette to work with actually. But because of the color story, it is not a quick and easy palette to work with, at least not for me. Let’s talk about the mattes first. There are four: Unseen, Unveil, Ash and Cameo. While Cameo looks a little beige in the pan, it applies white on the skin. Ash is a very light gray. Both of these lighter mattes blend really well. All of the shadows (matte and shimmer) are a bit powdery on the brush but if you tap off the brush there is no fall out during application.

Ash and Cameo can be blended out for a soft and subtle look. Unseen and Unveil are not subtle. They are very pigmented and even though Unveil swatches as a dark reddish brown on the lid it looks almost black. It just looks like a slightly less deep black than the black of Unseen.

When applied, Unseen can be a little patchy but it does blend well and settles in. There is a slight fading throughout the day, but at the end of a work day I still had eyeshadow on. It didn’t disappear.

Technically there are four shimmers, but the white of marble behaves a little differently so I really want to put that in a different category. I’m just not sure what category to put it into. But we’ll get to that in a minute, first the other three shimmers. They feel soft to the touch and like the mattes, the brush needs to be tapped off to get rid of some of the loose powder.

The Silver of Hail is stunning on the lid and is a stand out. It shimmers like foil when it is on the lid. The darker gold of Echo is actually one of my favorites and paired with the darker colors it is metallic but a bit more subtle than Hail. The darker tones of the old gold really work well with the darker shades.

Moth is more of an everyday work day shimmer. It pairs well with Unveil, but is almost too subtle to be with this palette. It really feels like it should be paired with some softer mattes. The other shadows in this palette are very bold and direct, but Moth is softer and tends to get a bit lost.

And then there is marble. It is the most powdery of the shades, but again tapping off the excess works well. It applies bright whit and glittery, but when you blend it the white fades down a bit and you can actually pull a light sheen of glitter over the lid.

This isn’t the boldest of looks but you can see how Marble was used to tone down the other shades and add a little sparkle over the top of them. The base shadows are Ash overlaid with Unseen at the outer edge and Cameo in the inner corner. then marble was blended over the top.

Over all I really enjoyed using this palette however it is not a quick palette to use. I didn’t pick it up and instinctively go for a certain shadow. I had to actually think about what i wanted and where I wanted the shadows. It is also not a palette I would use as an everyday work palette. The shadows will last on the lid all day, but because I had to think about the application it took a little longer to apply and for me the color story is a bit too bold for the office. It is a palette I will enjoy sitting down with and taking my time to play with. All of the shades are lovely and to be honest I will reach for this Marble shade to put over other eye looks. This Venus Immortals Palette form Lime Crime isn’t one I will pick up when I need to get out of the door in a hurry, however it is one I am happy to have in my collection and one i will look forward to playing with.

Trying out the Coraline Palette from Revolution Beauty

It has been a while since I have tried out a Revolution Beauty Palette. It isn’t because i don;t like them, I do actually and there are several that have caught my attention. However Revolution Beauty is one of those brands that I always picked up when I was in Ulta and not something I ordered. So if my local Ulta carried it, then I picked it up. Although to be completely honest the last time i was in Ulta I ran in to pick up a replacement for my Revolution Fast Base Foundation Stick (I love that stick formula foundation). And then I mostly walked in picked out the one i knew was in my shade and then went to the counter to pay. I was on a time crunch and so I didn’t look around.

However recently it came to my notice that many of my hair clips and sticks are showing a lot of wear. I tend to look at them, decide they are too worn and set them aside when what I needed to do was replace them. So I saw the two dragonflies and thought they would be fabulous and ordered the Coraline palette as well, since it too looked fabulous, and unlike the neutral palettes I have been reaching for as of late.

I liked that this palette opens to the side like a book and lays flat. Often with these smaller ones they lift up but don’t bend over all the way. Since this just opens like a book it is easy. The shades are purples and blacks with a bit of blue. One of the blacks has some sparkle but they tend to look the same when applied. The purples are various degrees of pigmentation. All of the mattes apply just a little bit streaky. However with a clean blender brush the streaks do blend out into a nice smooth color.

even if you don’t usually use and eyelid primer, I would go ahead and use one with this palette as the colors are far less streaky with a primer underneath. Also the reddish purple of Tunnel will stain your lids less if you use a shadow primer (or even just a concealer) underneath. It isn;t a major staining but your lids will look a little pink the next day.

the silver of dreaming was really the only disapointing shadow

the only shadow I had trouble with was the silver of Dreaming. It feels harder in the pan and it is not up to the pigment level of the rest of the pan. I would have loved a really good silver, especially given the theme of the palette, but this one just didn’t work for me. It was honestly the only disappointment for me.

For me part of the value is that I like the book Coraline (as well as the movie). This palette gives me the same aesthetic I love and I would keep it as a collector. It also has shadows that I don;t have a lot of. I do not in general have a lot of deep purple shadows. So I like having a few around. So for me this palette is worth it. The shadows are of decent quality and I enjoy using them. the streakiness of application is easily fixed by a blending brush and the shadows look good on the eyelid. For me the theme has more value than the shadows alone though so if you purchase something like this you will need to make your own judgement call about it. But personally I am happy to have this Coraline Palette in my collection and I would buy it again.