The Holy Grail of Sharpeners

Now maybe I'm last to this party but when I saw beauty blogger/beauty guru xsparkage talk about the Grindhouse sharpener from Urban Decay and how it came with the Loco Ocho 2 bundle and how amazing it was I got curious. Curious enough to look it up, see it was $10 and say "NOPE!" since you can get at least one sharpener for $1 at most dollar stores. 

Now, my Ulta haul was a total bust. I went and bought a tiny Ulta eyeshadow pallet for $8 and a new NYX pallet for $20+ and when I got them home I was super disappointed. My Ulta pallet had been opened already and was dirty, used and abused. Now I know how to clean and sanitize products so that didn't make me too wary, it was the NYX pallet that threw me over the edge. It's a pallet with a top compartment with all neutral eyeshadows and a bottom part with blush and highlight. I opened the top part and one of the eyeshadows was broken, which wasn't too bad because it's fixable with alcohol, tissue paper and a quarter. What got me was that I couldn't open the second compartment to fix the highlight that was also broken and spilling EVERYWHERE! 

Out of frustration I put everything back and went to Ulta today to exchange my stuff. One of the things I decided to pick up on a whim was the Grindhouse sharpener. (I know, long story, little pay off)

Grindhouse as I mentioned is $10 and can be bought at Ulta.com - Sephora.com - or UrbanDecay.com

It is double barreled, super sharp blades, has a removable top and bottom chamber for easy cleaning, and comes with a tiny scrapper stick. 

(I would have taken a picture but I didn't think about it until I used it so it's dirty and that seems unprofessional to me)

At first I have to admit I was a little impressed. Turning the pencil felt smooth and super easy. I turned it twice, pulled out the pencil and it looked almost NEW! I thought maybe it was a fluke so I tried it again.

Then I tried it on a lip pencil, realizing how important it is to have a good sharpened pencil when doing a darker lip outline. You don't want your pencil dull, making mistakes something easier to accomplish. And sure enough it looked as though I had never touched it. 

The worst pencils for my to sharpen are my NYX Jumbo Pencils. Even with most double barrel sharpeners I can never really get these to sharpen well. After doing this pencil I was sold. 

All in all, if you are an avid makeup user and have an extra $10 in your pocket I say go for it. In fact I may just go out and get myself another one for just lip pencils. It's amazing and totally lives up to hype but if you have a sharpener that does all that for you and is cheaper let me know in the comments section.

Thanks for reading.

XOXO

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.

Urban Decay Vice 2 and Anarchy Pallet Swatches and Reviews

The much anticipated holiday pallets are making their way into stores rather quickly. The company that caught my eye the most though? Urban Decay with their Vice 2 pallet and their Face Cases. I personally have come to the conclusion that my collection of make up has enough browns in every finish so I get super excited when something is released  with some really fun colors. Plus ladies, Halloween is approaching quickly and some of these colors in Vice 2 are just what the doctor ordered. So lets get on with it. 

Vice 2

Retails $59.00 at Sephora and UrbanDecay.com

The pallet comes with 20 shadows, all new and exclusive to this Limited Edition pallet. You also receive a double sided brush with this pallet.

First Row

Smokeout is a dark black/grey "satin" that honestly has a hint of duo chrome to me actually with a hint of taupe. Lovesick is a black glitter (if you've ever tried their stardust shadows, it's basically that) that has silver micro-glitter. Shellshock is a beautiful true silver metallic with no glitter. Coax is a pink metallic with hints of gold shimmer. X-Rated is a baby pink shimmer.

Second Row

Prank (even though it looks purple) is a navy blue with green shimmer. Madness is a metallic blue. Strike is a metallic gold. Stash is an olive color with gold shimmer making it look duo chrome as well. Poison is charcoal color with silver glitter. 

Third Row

Radar is a Metallic brown with glitter. Damaged is an emerald green shimmer. Voodoo is a jewel toned purple with shimmer. Betrayal is a light purple with a blue shimmer to it (again very duo-chrome). Derailed is a metallic taupe shimmer.

Fourth Row

Dope is a champagne satin. Toxic is a rose gold shimmer with glitter. Habit is a nude matte shade. Ambush is a metallic brown. And Rewind is a medium brown matte shade.

All of these shadows are incredibly pigmented. Be very aware of the shades with glitter because those have some fall out. I really did enjoy the entire set up of this pallet. It came with a lot of fun shades to give you a bright look, enough dark shades to give you a smokey eye (not exactly a matte black smokey eye but you know) and enough neutrals to make a soft look with it. Not to mention the mirror is huge and stays up on it's own. The brush is nice, I personally wish the fluffy side was a bit more fluffy to allow better blending (like the naked 2 brush) but I'm happy with it over all. If you want to try using shimmers, colors, metallics, or glitters I say go for it. You won't find a dud in this puppy. 

Anarchy Face Case

Retails for $44.00 and I've only seen it sold at Sephora.com

This pallet comes with five shadows, two blushes, one highlight, a 24/7 travel size liner and a travel sized Super-Saturated High Gloss Lip Color in Scandal. Scandal isn't available in the normal line of Urban Decay products and is exclusive to this pallet. The five eyeshadows are also exclusive to this pallet. I think the darker blush used to be part of the line of blushes but has been discontinued (don't quote me on this) but the other blush, and the highlight are also exclusive to this pallet.

It also comes with two full sized mirrors.

The Shadows

Redemption is a charcoal satin with a hint of shimmer. Fray is a matte nude shade. Vaporize is a metallic taupe/grey shade. Provocateur is a metallic muave with chunky glitter. Revolt is a silver metallic with glitter.

Face

Fetish is a mauve/pink with a hint of shimmer. Quickie is a bright barbie doll pink that's matte. Highlight which is the highlight shade is a golden metallic shade.

Pencils

Scandal is a berry colored, deeper pink shade and Perversion is a really dark matte black pencil. 

Does anyone remember getting the Naked pallet when it first came out and reaching into Sidecar and trying to apply it only to realize that was a horrible idea because of all of that chunky glitter fall out? That is exactly what happened when I reached into Provocateur which was super disappointing. Other than that as I said before the shimmers have a bit of fall out, nothing drastic. The colors aren't exactly something to bounce with joy over and they actually weren't the reason I bought the pallet. Work yourself a nice classic smokey eye or a soft romantic eye with this pallet. 

The blushes are really nice but be aware that Quickie is super pigmented so a little bit goes a long ways guys. You can go overboard really quickly with the blushes not to mention that highlight. It's nice that it's a golden color but a little goes a super long way. You don't want to light up like a light bulb.

Now for the reason I bought this pallet. I was super intrigued by this lip shade and as we go into fall/winter it's a perfect bight shade with a hint of darkness because of the berry shade. If you've never tried these lip pencils you do have to sharpen them, and they aren't very moisturizing either. They are pigmented (their lipsticks have better pigmentation) and the staying power is fair. Now Perversion is a really popular black pencil. It's super creamy, and really black. This pencil completely lives up to it's hype of being better than Zero (as someone who has owned zero before) in every way, shape, and form. I'm so happy they finally put it into a pallet.

If you are curious about the pencils like I am, do yourself the favor and just buy yourself the pencils, unless you are super curious about any of these shades it isn't worth the money. Then again I'm not super big on blushes to begin with so maybe that's why this pallet felt a little lacking to me. I'm still going to use the hell out of this pallet though.

Thanks for reading!