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Beauty

Face of the Day #4: The Prodigy Show FOTD.

When was the last time I put up one of these posts? October 2015, that’s when. I should do this more often.

I went to The Prodigy show the first Saturday of June. I’ll be riding that wave for the rest of the month for sure. Make-up wise, it was the perfect opportunity to break out my black lipstick.

Here’s what I wore:

face of the day flatlay

List of products:

Face & Base:

  • face primer: Inglot Mattifying Under Makeup Base
  • eye primer: Artdeco Pure Minerals Mineral Eyeshadow Base Sensitive
  • foundation: MAC Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15 in NW10 (really old post *shudder shudder*; update coming up)
  • concealer: only God knows 😀 I think it’s BeYu
  • undereye setting powder: e.l.f. High Definition Undereye Setting Powder
  • setting powder: AVON Mark. Magix HD Finishing Powder
  • blusher: Giordani Gold Bronzing Pearls Compact Heritage Edition in Natural Radiance 33167 (very mini-review on Insta)

I am slowly beginning to tame the MAC foundation – about damn time, considering I’ve had it for so long. Plus I’m nearing the end of my stash, and don’t really want to buy anything new until I go through all the old ones. It is quite a heavy base, though, so perhaps I would need to get something lighter for the dog days of summer.

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Giordani Gold Bronzing Pearls Compact in Natural Radiance I praised on my Instagram a while ago, and really want to write a full-feature post about it, but I’m having problems with photographing it on my face. It’s a really natural-looking blusher – the name Natural Radiance is very apt for this product – which makes it a really good starter blusher. You have to be really heavy-handed to overdo it.

Eyes & Brows

  • brows: Artdeco Eyebrow Powder in 2
  • eyeliner & shadow base: BeYu Color Biggie in 201
  • eyeshadow: Mac Eye Shadow x15 Cool Neutral Palette, shades Pick Me Up, French Clay, Pearled Earth, and Black Tied
  • mascara: Faberlic Express Volume Mascara 5556

I’ve been using Artdeco Eyebrow Powder nearly every day for a couple of months now, and I barely made a dip in the product. Granted, I don’t use a lot – just a touch of shading and shaping, but I’m still surprised. Artdeco eyebrow powders and eye shadows don’t have a lot of product in the pan (just 0.7 g/ 0.02 oz), but considering how long it’s taking me to even make a more or less visible dip, I suppose it’s fine.

BeYu Color Biggie in 201 was my holy grail pencil for waterline. It stayed put for almost the entire day, which is unprecedented for me. Unfortunately, this time it betrayed me, but I think it’s just the matter of age. BeYu Color Biggies are no longer imported here (huge mistake), so what I bought were testers from a local retailer. Otherwise they’re really good.

I have a couple of massive projects planned for MAC Eye Shadow x 15/ Cool Neutral. 😀 Below are close-ups of the shadows I used. I wasn’t going for anything fancy – just something dark and pronounced around the eye that was reasonably blended around the edges.

mac pearled earth closeup

MAC Pearled Earth went all over the lid.

mac black tied closeup

MAC Black Tied (ugh isn’t it gorgeous) went to the outer V and was also used as a under eye liner.

mack pick me up and french clay

MAC Pick Me Up (top left) and MAC French Clay (bottom right) were used for blending out and in the inner corner.

Lips:

  • liner: Oriflame The One Gel Eye Liner Pencil 32091
  • lipstick: Golden Rose Velvet Matte Lipstick in 33

I lined my lips with Oriflame The One Gel Eye Liner Pencil, thinking that the lipstick on its own might bleed outside the edges, but ultimately I think it was a mistake. Golden Rose Velvet Matte lipstick in the shade 33 looks better on its own. I filled my lips with the eyeliner as well, and where I did that, the lipstick appeared patchy.

I’m an office worker, and although I fully believe that black is a neutral colour both in makeup and clothes, the management is bound to disagree with me. (I also believe leopard print to be neutral, but that’s a story for another day…) Seeing as most of my days are spent in the office, I don’t think I’d get the opportunity to rock a black lip any time soon, but I will try wearing it on the weekend without the liner to see how it performs. Recently I bought several other lipsticks from this line, and want to write a detailed post about them as well.

End result:

black lipstick selfie

And from my Instagram on the day of the Prodigy show:

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Categories
Beauty

BellaOggi Trendsetter Eye Shadow Palette in Naked Feeling

How I wanted this quad.

I’ve been circling around BellaOggi Trendsetter in Naked Feeling for good three months before finally giving in and taking it home.

How beautiful is it?

trendsetter-naked-feeling

Very beautiful.

Now let’s get to everything else.

Packaging

Something about these round black pans with a transparent cover speaks to me. I really love it on eye shadows, blushers, and powders. The size is good, it’s very nice to hold in your hand.

bellaoggi-trendsetter-in-naked-feeling

You get 4 g of product overall, so roughly 1 g of each shadow.

Formula

All shadows, including the matte one, are buttery soft to the touch, almost cushioned. Fallout is present, but nothing too severe, perhaps aided by the fact that three of the shades are so light. This is also perhaps what aids blending.

bellaoggi-naked-feeling

Pigmentation

The most pigmented out of the 4 is the bottom one. The light peachy pink right next to it gets the second place – it doesn’t show up on the swatch (really, it doesn’t – see below), but you can build it up. The very first one would work great as a really light highlighter for pasty people (read: me). It shows up against the skin, but it’s not overbearing, to put it mildly. Unfortunately, the light brown shadow (the only matte with a very light sheen) barely shows up. I’m not even sure you can see it in the swatch below. In fact, I’m not sure you can see any of them in the photo below, aside from the very first one I mentioned.

trendsetter-swatch

The palette is ridiculously poorly pigmented. It’s so poorly pigmented, it grinds my little stony heart to dust.

naked-feeling-trendsetter-swatch

In conclusion

Another quad in the BellaOggi Trendsetter collection I’ve been eyeing is Burlesque. I went for Naked Feeling first, because a) you can never have too many neutrals; b) if it turned out to be poor quality, it would be easier to at least attempt to work with. In the end, I passed it on to a more patient person. I just couldn’t work with it. All my tries to use the matte as a base/ transition shade and to work with the lighter shades as inner corner and brow bone highlights ultimately did not work out. I would get frustrated by the poor pigmentation every time I would use it, so it went to a new home.

Needless to say I will not be buying Burlesque, although the colours are very, very lovely.

Categories
Beauty

INGLOT Haul! Swatches and Demo.

My friends gave me an INGLOT gift certificate for my birthday. INGLOT is a brand I’ve been following for a while, and was one happy lady when they finally set up shop here in Kishinev.

Though my initial impulse was to try a colour I’ve never used before, or maybe just go for another nail polish, I went for basics in the end. Much like with my wardrobe, my makeup stash lacks good quality basic elements. INGLOT eye shadows are high quality, so getting neutrals from them is a good idea.

I went for three AMCs and two matte shadows. They were all bought as separate singles, as I was also getting a palette. I love the no-frills black cardboard with a slight sheen. I always say that I love the no-frills black packaging, but then again, it’s true. Simple black packaging all the way.

inglot packaging

Apologies for the blurry shot. Low winter light is my enemy (rather, my poor time management skills are my enemy, but let’s not point fingers).

Let’s see what’s inside!