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. 

The Beauty Noobz Guide to Make up (part two- nails)

Beauty and make up in the past few years has completely ventured from just things you'd use like foundation, blush, eye shadow and lipstick to beauty tools, skin care and also nail polish. These things have also gotten more innovative and creative as the years have passed.

Now as a make up artist they have a magnetic bracelet that you can put your pallet on so your hands are free. For the make up enthusiast you have the brush tree, so that your brushes can dry upside down and the water won't ruin them. (let me know if you'd like to know more about how water can ruin your brushes) For the skin care fanatics there are BB and CC creams to help you cover up flaws but still treat your skin. And for the Nail Polish people you have so many nail art options.

There are matte polishes, sparkle polishes, gel polishes, textured polishes, and so much more. Hell, they even make nail polish brushes for nail art now. 

I decided that since this is such a crazy that even my least girly friends are trying these things out that it would be good to review a few things and let you see what they look like for yourself.

The Nail Polish that I'd recommend to a beauty noob who wants to try nail art is something like the Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots.

 #85 Pretty in Polka $3.99 (website price)

One coat of the pink color in my opinion looks kind of cute. It's a really sheer pink with matte chunks of black and white glitter. It becomes a bit more opaque (Still a bit see through if your nails are long) However, I wouldn't exactly recommend more than the two coats because by the third you end up with a really big layer of nail polish on, too much glitter and you're still a bit see through. On the brighter side the glitter in this polish is not hard to get at all. There are some polishes that make you fish around for the glitter, not these. I think these are kind of perfect, they come in a few fun colors, they make you look like you put more effort into it than you did, the dry time is awesome. Be very aware though that the chunks of glitter may break off randomly without a top coat.

The polish usually lasts about 4 days before it starts to chip.

There are also things like nail stickers.

(I should have totally taken a picture of this before I did my nails)

I bought this from the dollar store so it was only $0.99. It came with a nail file and looked easy enough to work with.

This is what they look like on. Now these are honestly easy to apply but if you look closely at the picture you can see that it lifts in certain places. The stickers feel less like stickers and more like really tug-able tape. They stayed on really well and looked nice from far away. It's just the close up that made it look awful. So I wondered if maybe on a flatter nail bed they would go on smoothly.

(luckily I have the best support system ever) 

So I tried it out on a different persons hand and sure enough it worked. It went on easily, fit perfectly and didn't lift from anywhere. So these are totally worth a dollar if you have a flatter nail bed than I do.

Lastly, there are pretty awesome nail art kits that seem complete as they are. The Revlon double sided polishes seem like exactly that, a complete set. They have their Revlon Nail Art Moon Candy (which has one solid color on one side and a chunky glitter polish on the other side, or their Expressionist line which has two solid colors but one has a very fine tip brush, they have a Neon line which is one solid (white I think) and a highlighter color, and recently they released their Chalkboard line.

It is exactly what it sounds like. One side is a matte black color and the other is a very pastel color. 

I found this at CVS and it was $9.18 but on drugstore.com it's $7.19.

Now as you can see the black nail polish is matte. However, if you have a matte top coat (it's clear and makes all of your polishes matte -sans shine) then you might want to add that on top of your black coat. The nail polish instructions say you can use one-two coats but I highly recommend two coats because the matte black goes on streaky with the first coat. 

The white side has a nice texture to the polish, it isn't really glossy like normal polishes but it isn't matte either so it does give off a very chalk board feel to it. I do recommend using nail art brushes for this because the white brush may be thinner than the black but it's not thin enough to draw whatever you want nicely. 

I bought these from Forever 21 for $3.80.

I used the dotting (brush?) to make all of the little hearts and they came out way better than they did when I first tried it with the brush. I used two coats of the white though because I wanted it to be really pronounced. 

They awesomely didn't start chipping until day 3 without any form of a top coat.

Anyway, that's all for tonight. I'm thinking the next one I will try to mythbust on what actually helps your nail polish dry faster.

xoxo

The beauty noobz guide to make up (part one brushes)

Recently I was online and talking to a friend of mine who was asking me about make up. She started off by asking me if I subscribe to birchbox or ipsy. For those of you who don't already know both of these are companies where you subscribe to a monthly fee and they send you beauty products every month. Birchbox from what I know has a lot of hits and misses, everything is sample sized but it does have a shop to buy the full sized products. Ipsy also does the same thing but they ask you what kinds of things you like to use and dislike using and depending on that send you an array of items to try every month.

After we talked about them (I do currently subscribe to Ipsy) she started picking my brain about make up, different types, and what works best, but she also confessed to me that she did have brushes but didn't know what to with all of them. So I got the idea to break it down right here. I'm going to be using the make up brushes I got while I went to make up school. They are 15 brushes and all have a unique use, however, go with what you feel. If you want to use a fluffy brush for a light contour down the sides of your nose go right ahead. This is just to give you a general idea and get you started.

1. Foundation Brush

The foundation brush is usually used for even application of moist products this includes your primes, moisturizers, and liquid foundations. Now most people enjoy using make up sponges, or face brushes for this task. The key to the even application is that if you start to develop a patch of skin that looks as though it has too much product, take your fluffy face brush and buff it out. By buffing it out in a circular motion you spread the product and no longer have a big blotch.

2. Powder Brush or Face Brush

This brush is usually used for powders. Anything that you want all over your face or applied in a concentrated amount. For example, powder foundations, setting powders, translucent powders, or something like a skin finish that is more sun kissed and bronze. However, if you want a more concentrated application of blush I found that these brushes work well for that. 

3. Angle Brush

The angled brush is usually used for powders, you can use them for blush, contouring the cheeks, forehead and chin. I've also found that they can work well with more liquid products like when you contour the face with a darker foundation or a liquid bronzer. They can also be used to apply highlight.

4. Concealer Brush

The concealer brush is usually used for patting on your concealer. However this is sometimes flawed since it may be harder to blend out with the brush as opposed to your finger, but most likely more sanitary. This brush can also be used to lay down primer, and to this day if my brushes aren't clean and all I have is this brush I'll pat down eye shadow with it. (That's a bad habit)

5. Firm Shadow

Brushes like this one are really kind of tough. You wanna get in pat down your product and really move along because that thing will start to hurt if you start to windshield wiper motion with it. It can be used for a really concentrated amount of color, or to apply glitter. Also works really well for applying a cream base to eyes.

6, 7 & 8. Eye Shadow Brushes

These pick up lots of color, and they also pat on like a dream. If you want an allover color these brushes are the way to go and they range in size usually for whatever comfort level you have. I have big eyes that are too small to comfortably use the large eye shadow brush on myself. However, the smaller one does the same thing and fits comfortably to my eyelid. You use 'em for eye shadow, any shimmer or sparkle you'd want to add on top of anything really.

9 & 10. Fluffy Brushes.

Fluffy brushes also come in all shapes and sizes. Some people prefer them bigger, rounded, coming to a point or thinner, they make them in all different shapes and sizes for you guys. The point of a fluffy brush is to blend. Usually you use the blending color in your crease to help make your eye shadow not look like it have very harsh lines. You don't want people to be able to clearly tell where your eye shadow ends and your under brow highlight begins. You want it all to blend. You can also use these without a product. By swiping a clean brush upon an area you can soften the amount of product applied. 

11. Pencil Brush

These brushes are usually used to apply color under the eye. Lets say you want to smoke out some black eye liner under your eye, you pick up shadow on this brush and sweep it back and forth. (Be careful though, if the brush is too big for your eye it can get into your eye.) it can also be used to smoke out pencil (or still wet gel lines) on your upper lash line. You don't want a harsh black line on your upper lash line, pick up a matte brown shadow and smoke out the top line.

12, 13 & 14. Liner Brushes

Now with these they also come in all shapes and sizes. These brushes can be used to apply powder to the eyebrows, apply eye shadow as an eyeliner or apply gel liners. Some people prefer the angled liner, especially when you are trying to wing out your eyeliner. The flat liner also works extremely well for winging out liner. (I'll teach you how to do that with the different liner brushes soon) Or some, myself included prefer the old long liner brush, which is usually harder to use for people new to make up.

Last but not least...

15.  Lip Brush

These little guys are used for lip products. Lipsticks, lip glosses, lip stains, you name it and you can use a lip brush with it. Now you don't need to use a lip brush (unless you are doing make up on other people) but the lip brush helps with the colors that are harder to keep in the lines. There are lipsticks shaped differently, or just too dark that stain so it's sometimes best to just fill in your lips with the brush.

Well for now that's all. Hope you liked it. Feel free to comment or ask any questions you still have.

Also don't let price fool you. You don't need high end Sigma or MAC or Crown Brushes to make something beautiful happen. There are plenty of brands that are great and way more affordable. Try EcoTools, ELF brushes, (Crown Brush usually has a sale once every two months on Hautelook.com) BH cosmetics has great brushes, Real Techniques works well also. So look around and find what works for you.