The Balm Nude'Tude Palette Review and Swatches

Recently The Balm Cosmetics had a 24 hour flash sale where everything was 50% off on the entire website and the proceeds went to charity. In case you haven't heard of The Balm since you cannot get them at Sephora or Ulta they are a brand of cosmetics that in my opinion has some of the cutest most 1950's esq. packaging ever.

 (Nude 'tude palette $36.00 at TheBalm.com)

Nude 'tude comes in two different pallet forms, you can get the Naughty Palette which has the cute nude pin ups. (Get it NUDE 'Tude? eh? eh? okay I'll stop ^-^) or the Nice Palette which just has the same image as the front on the inside in case the girls aren't your cup of tea. I personally think they add personality and are super cute. 

The palette comes with 12 shadows, a large mirror, and a tiny two sided brush.

As you can see the palette isn't built anything like the Naked palettes. You get a large range of colors that don't all have the same underlying base color like the Urban Decay palettes do. This is highly appreciated by me because every now and again a good burgundy/wine color makes for a good crease color.

(Left to Right: Sassy, Stubborn, Selfish, Sophisticated, Sexy, and Stubborn)

Sexy-

Sexy is a white pearl that is super rich and pigmented. It makes a nice sheered out highlight or a good concentrated lid color.

Stubborn-

Stubborn is a beige pearl shade. This shade like the rest of the palette are very pigmented, soft, and buttery. 

Selfish-

Selfish is a light taupe-y brown pearl with micro glitter that does look like it would be straight out of the Naked (one) palette.

Sophisticated-

Sophisticated is a nice mid-range brown with golden micro glitter. Also very reminiscent of the Naked (one) palette.

Sexy-

Sexy is my perfect matte wine color. It's so smooth and works perfectly as a crease shade for me to smoke out a lot of the darker shades in this palette or any of my other palettes just in case I don't want to stick to browns, blacks, or my new go to shade grey.

Serious-

Serious is a nice buttery matte black. Like jet black. A little goes a long way guys and gals so be careful with this shade. It can be applied as softly or intense as you see fit. 

(Left to Right: Snobby, Stand-offish, Sultry, Seductive, Silly, and Sleek)

Snobby-

Snobby is a crazy color to me and honestly maybe the most interesting. It isn't gold, it's a yellow with micro glitter. Like a canary yellow with glitter guys! AND it's completely wearable! I'm super impressed by this color.

Stand-offish-

Stand-offish is a champagne color with so much shimmer! It's pretty, nothing crazy out of this world but really pretty none-the-less.

Sultry-

Sultry is a matte mid toned brown that works wonderfully at blending or as an all over lid color. It's buttery and perfect.

Seductive-

Seductive is a golden brown with tiny glitters again. The color yet again is perfect but I'm sure I have something similar to this in my collection.

Silly-

Silly is a dark brown with reddish, gold micro glitter. It's like the shade Blackheart from The Naked 3 Palette only unlike Blackheart you can actually see the glitter when you apply it. However, it is also less pigmented than Blackheart. (I just swatched them side by side to check)

Sleek-

Sleek is a dark almost blackish matte brown. Really blendable and awesome. 

Overall:

I was iffy about this palette when I got it, but after playing with it for a while I really came to enjoy it a lot. It's really versatile and can give you a basic look or a very smoke dramatic look. The brush is really stiff but I found it good for applying the shadows as liner for the bottom or top lash line. It's thin and has a magnetic closing. I can't find any downside to it besides having to order it online because none of the normal high end make up retailers sell it. All in all if you ever find them having a good sale (they are on Hautelook very often) try it. 

Lorac Unzipped palette review and swatches

The Lorac Unzipped pallet isn't exactly the newest thing on the market but it was something that I was super curious about it because of the rose gold trend that was started up thanks to the Naked 3 that came out late last year. 

The pallet is sold at Sephora, Ulta, and on the Lorac website.

($40 on lorac cosmetics website)

This palette comes with five large shadows and an eye shadow primer and also has a large mirror. The palette is small and really easy to travel with. It also has really cute cleaver names.

Undercover

Is a shimmery very pale beige. It's super subtle and contains no glitter, just a soft shimmer to it. It's super soft and pigmented.

Unbelievable

Is also a shimmer that contains several rose undertones with gold shimmer and is absolutely stunning!

Unattainable

is less of a rose color and very much more of a darker more sunset gold color.

Unconditional

This shade is a matte rosy brown that reminds me a lot of Nooner in the Naked 3 pallet. However, Unconditional is a lighter less intense shade than Nooner. 

Unbridled

Is also a rosy brown matte shade. However, Unbridled is darker and a lot more brown than rosy.

(The matte shades are pigmented and really easy to blend just fyi)

Undiscovered

Undiscovered would be the shade that I would have figured would have been like Half Baked from the Naked 1 & 2 palettes but this shimmery gold is like sunshine in an eye shadow. It's beautiful and a shade lighter than Unattainable.

Unreal

This shade is like a classic shimmery beige, nothing too impressive about it honestly.

Uncensored

Is a shimmery brown with rosy/gold shimmer. In the swatch it definitely looked more golden and like Smog from the Naked 1 palette.

Unspoken

Is the perfect midtone shade of matte brown. It's just matte brown though, there are no hints of rose or gold in this shade and works perfectly as a blending shade. 

Untamed

Is a shimmery darker brown. It has a tiny bit of gold to it but nothing insane. This is the darkest shade in the pallet and can be built to add more intensity and darkness.

Overall:

I really enjoyed this pallet, it's cheaper than most of the other palettes (I also got it with my professional discount so I got it super cheap) and Lorac makes great quality eye shadow. I think it's worth it if you like these type of colors, don't have any of these shades in your collection or are just interested in something that could really just be a basic palette in your collection. I love it and would really love to try out more Lorac palettes. 

Smashbox Wondervision Mega Palette review and swatches

The Wondervision Mega Palette by Smashbox is a new product that is (from what I can tell) exclusively sold at Ulta.

 The palette retails for $49.00

 It comes with 30 eyeshadows (8 of them matte) 3 blushes (1 with shimmer) and a matte bronzer. The colors seem fairly even when it comes to the amount of neutrals and brighter, bolder colors. Each one of the shades is very pigmented, bendable, and seem just amazing to me.

 You receive 4 cards that give you ideas on how to use the shadows and come with numbers on top so you know what shade should go where and which shades were designed to be used together.

It also comes with a half sized mirror and stays upright by itself.

The formula for the entire palette is the epitome of the word "rich" to me. They are super soft, buttery and amazingly textured. These shadows outshine even the best Urban Decay or MAC shadows I've tried, not to mention that it seems as though a lot of work and thought went into the making of this pallet. So let's start with the swatching. 

The first row is all neutrals with only one shade that isn't matte. All six shades are a dream to work with and Golden has a beautiful pearl finish. The top row alone makes a very wearable day or night look for girls who aren't always looking for big and bold.

The second row starts off with a shimmer shade. The rest of the row is a solid pearl finish row (as are most of the eyeshadows) This row reminds me of Fall completely. Also Umber is a dupe for MAC's Club, but takes less to get a good pigmentation for me.

This row starts off with a matte shade. Mint, Turquoise, and Green are both pearl finishes but Blue and Dark Blue both have more of a shimmer/glitter to them. This section completely makes me think of the ocean though.

These purples are what I wish most pallets would give you. You get a pearl finish with a hint of lavender, a pink with shimmer/glitter, a matte lavender, a pearl violet, a shimmer/glitter purple and a matte black. You can give yourself an impressive purple based smokey eye with just this section (As you could with all of the other sections though) and you can get it in any finish you want.

Last but not least (for the eyeshadows) you get this line of smokey shadows that has 4 pearl finishes and 2 shimmer/glitter finishes that my best friend describes as space. Don't be fooled by the swatch of Pewter it's a lot more taupe than it seems. I am glad that you have your matte browns and black while you also have a shimmer/glitter brown and black.

All three blushes are wearable, even glow which seems to have scary-ish amounts of sparkle in it before you apply it. These shades like the shadows are really pigmented so a little will go a long way. The bronzer was also flawless for my skin but I could see it being too light for medium to dark skin tones. 

No matter how I look at this pallet, I found no duds in it and I am completely happy that I made this purchase. No regrets at all. However, if you aren't in the market for bright colors or shimmers you might want to stay away from this one. You don't get enough matte shadows to warrant a pallet for this price or enough neutrals either. 

Hope you enjoyed.

Beauty Noobz Guide to Beaty (Part Four- Eye Shadow Bases)

If you're new to the make up world the idea of an eye shadow base may be kind of confusing. What's it for? What about the different colored bases? What kind should you buy? etc.

Here are the answers to any of the questions you may have, also putting a high end shadow base against a dollar base. 

What is an eye shadow base for?

Eye shadow bases (a.k.a. eye primers) are used to prepare a base for your eye shadow. They help them last longer, look more vivid, help guard against creasing and some new bases even claim to have anti-aging benefits.

What about the different color bases?

A new big trend with primers/bases is to add different dimension or color to them and that means that your eye shadows may show up a bit differently.

Black Bases- You can achieve a black base by using any black pencil liner or gel liner, but when doing this be very careful to smudge out the liner before applying the eye shadow if not the black may over power your eye shadow. A good tip I learned in school was to first apply a light wash of a light brown shadow to the crease so that you don't smudge your liner too far.

White bases- White bases are supposed to present you with a perfectly blank canvas, making your shadow present itself as vivid as possible. It doesn't have to compete with your natural eye color or any color. Keep in mind that when speaking art terms White is the Lack of Color which is why your colors will be more vibrant.

Skin Toned bases- Skin toned bases are meant to be more natural, something to adjust the color of your eyelids. Some eye lids are more naturally red than others so by adjusting the color on your lids you make it easier for your eye shadow to be as pure a color as possible.

What kind of base should you buy?

Most people use money and reputation of a brand to decide what base they should buy. Too Faced Shadow Insurance and Urban Decays Primer Potion are two very popular eye primers that are also kind of pricey. However, there are so many types and tricks for things you might already have in your collection that you don't necessarily need to go out and buy an expensive one. So lets expand on this question with some swatches shall we?

(left to right: Color Tattoo -Barely Beige, Covergirl + Olay concealer balm, NYX Eyeshadow Base, ELF Mineral Eyeshadow Primer, Too Faced Perfect Eyes liner, Cherimoya liner, and Urban Decay Primer Potion)

As you can see the so called "primers" come in all different colors, textures, and some aren't even primers. Concealer is a good option for a primer and something that most of us already have in our collection. The creamier the concealer the more likely it is to crease.

Let's see how these bad boys preform now.

As you can see the different colored bases make for a different finish to the same eye shadow. A shimmer base like the Color Tattoo does add an extra amount of sparkle that shows up through the shadow. That means if you are going for a Matte look I wouldn't recommend a cream eyeshadow with shimmer as your base. So, does expensive technically mean better? No. I use ELF primer (which is $1) all the time and have no problems. But as you can tell ANY base is better than NO base. 

So go out there, try a primer/base of some sort, just keep in mind that moderation should be used on whichever you pick, also for a smokey eye It's always pick a black base (smoked out and in moderation). 

Hope that helped.