Colourpop Element of Surprise Rearranged

I have fallen in love with rearranging palettes, and the second one I'm doing is one that I already have, which is Colourpop's Element of Surprise.

I bought this palette to resell on Carousell, but I didn't manage to sell it as it wasn't popular, and I brought it to Germany as part of my collection. At first glance, it seems really boring with neutral browns everywhere and one pop of bright pink.

After my expert Photoshopping, it looks like this:

It certainly looks more cohesive and neat now, and since I have the actual palette, I can actually rearrange it to look like this. All of Colourpop's palettes are magnetised and you just need a pin to lift up the shadows and pop them back again easily.

So after I arranged my Element of Surprise palette, I realised that the actual palette doesn't look all that much like the photos. Welps. I even got confused trying to figure out where everything should go. In the end, I had to recreate an arrangement that made sense in person.

This is an extremely boring neutral palatte if you cover the hot pink, and I think this is the case for most of Colourpop's palettes. I want to depot them all into a large empty palette but I am also a little worried that there'll be many pointless repeats. Since it's so easy to depot Colourpop's palettes, I think it's at least worth a try.

New Year's Cranberry Look

As we approach the end of 2018, I thought I would try a shimmery cranberry look. It turned out quite bad as the cream eyeshadow I used didn't really blend, but I love it anyway.

I used Kiko's Long Lasting Stick in 37, which is a reddish brown that's really pretty. I put that colour all over the lid as a base, and went in with the Wet and Wild Liquid Catsuit eyeshadow in When Stars Align, which is purplish with gold glitter all over it.

Top: Kiko Long Lasting Stick in 37

Bottom: Wet and Wild Liquid Catsuit in When Stars Align

Here are some swatches of the products that I used:

Top row: Zoeva Cocoa Blend eyeshadows

Bottom row: Wet and Wild Liquid Catsuit on the left and Kiko Long Lasting Stick on the right

Then I blended the crease with Zoeva Cocoa Blend palette's Substitute for Love and intensified the cranberry shade with Warm Notes too. I darkened the outer corners with Freshly Toasted.

Zoeva Cocoa Blend Palette
Top row third shadow: Warm Notes
Bottom row second and third shade from left: Substitute for Love, Freshly Toasted

The look was patchy because I put a primer, then powder, then glitter glue, then a cream stick eyeshadow, and a liquid glitter on it. It just wouldn't blend out due to the layering of creams, powders and primers.

Anyway, still loved the smokey look, and now it's ten minutes to midnight. People are setting off fireworks in Germany and my cat is extremely concerned about the noise and lights.

Happy New Year everyone, and my New Year's resolution is to keep my blog going, and have at least 100 posts at the end of 2019!

Here's a resting bitch face for the New Year!

Rearranged BH Cosmetics Weekend Festival Palette

So recently I've been really interested in a colourful palette. It's the BH Cosmetics Weekend Festival Palette that was released quite awhile back but i just realised that it has really good reviews from a few of my favourite Youtubers like Kathleenlights, Tati, RawBeautiKristi etc. It has really bright colours and all the tutorials I saw on Youtube was so beautiful and almost avant garde.

The mattes are supposed to be really pigmented and smooth, and that is really hard to do with colours like pink, light blue, or yellow. But somehow I didn't like the colour layout, it looked messy and incoherent to me. So I decided to rearrange the palette to see if I can make more sense of the colours, and I am pleased to say that I managed to arrange them in a more pleasing way.

Top: Original

Bottom: Rearranged

As you can see, I have excellent Photoshop skills (sarcasm). This is literally the first time I have used Photoshop since I was in media school, and I had to ask Mr Koala for a refresher course. So let's all look past the crappy Photoshopping and look at the palette.

I discovered that there are five rows of colours, yellow/green, brown, orange, purple/pink, and blue. Of these colours, the brown and orange can be considered neutral/wearable colours, and that leaves three rows of colours, which is not bad. This rearrangement reminds me of my Juvia's Place Masquerade Palette with the blues, pinks and warm browns.

 

Juvia's Place Masquerade palette

The Weekend Festival Palette is on sale right now for 13 euros on Beautybay, so I am extremely tempted, especially because my friend has been sending me such inspired and colourful eyeshadow looks for Christmas, and I feel like doing colourful looks as well. Currently, my only colourful palette is the Masquerade and a neon palette by Bad Habits

Bad Habits After Shock palette

I feel like my collection would be accentuated by the addition of this palette, and the quality of this palette has been verified by all those Youtubers.

If I manage to get this palette, I will do at least five vibrant, exciting and unconventional eyeshadow looks and post them here :)

Velvet Rose Reloaded Palette Review and Swatches

I received this scarf for Christmas and it's perfect for covering up my neck when taking photos. 

So today, we are reviewing the Makeup Revolution Reloaded Velvet Rose Palette. This is the most popular palette and it's the dupe for Anastasia Soft Glam palette. 

Makeup Revolution Reloaded Velvet Rose Palette

Anastasia Soft Glam palette

They do look pretty similar but since I don't have the Soft Glam palette, I can only give my review on the Velvet Rose palette. 

Here are the swatches: 

The mattes are very smooth and pigmented, but the shimmers are disappointing. There are two light gold shimmers that barely showed up, and one very chunky bronze glittery shade that fell all over my undereye area and transfered to my upper lid almost immediately.

Messy glitter transfer; I should have used a glitter glue and fixing spray

I can see why this palette is the most popular one though, the colours work really well together, with a few orange browns and purple browns, making it very versatile. You can go for a cooler mauve look or a warmer orange look, and both would look equally wearable for everyday. If only the shimmers were better. Overall I would still recommend this palette for the matte shades and the low price tag. 5 euro for a palette with 15 shades is unbelievable, it's about the price of a single eyeshadow pan. The mattes are so creamy and easy to blend, like all the other reloaded palettes, and the colour scheme is pretty and soft.

It looks warmer in person, like all the Reloaded palettes

Basic Matte Reloaded Palette Review and Swatches

This is the very neutral look that I did using the Makeup Revolution Reloaded Basic Matte Palette. It is as the name suggests, very basic and very matte. I apologize for the unexciting eye look, it looks a lot better in person. In person it looks natural and well-groomed, but in the photo it just looks like I barely have eyeshadow on.

So here are the swatches on my arm with a clean finger and no primer. These are just one swatch, except the first couple of shades where I tried to intensify the colours a little because it matches my skin tone almost exactly and can’t be seen. The formula is really nice, soft and smooth, and the colour shows up well. It was easy to blend and that is really important in neutral colours, because they are mostly  used for a light wash of colour all over the lid and crease, and to help the other colours blend better. I feel like this would be a dupe for the Viseart Neutral Matte palette, but these perform better in my opinion. I am not a fan of Viseart formulas, I find them overpriced and overhyped.

Viseart Neutral Matte Palette

Makeup Revolution Basic Matte Palette

Since I didn’t wear them long, I have no idea if they last long on the eyes. I will have to test that out another day, and do a check in after 8 hours.

Overall, I’m really happy with the palette. There are way too many similar colours, I feel like there could be more of a difference among the colours, but for the price (5 euro), I really can’t complain. The formula is better than Essence and Catrice shadows in the same price point, and on par with Morphe and BH cosmetics. This is the most boring palette out of them all, and I would recommend this for people who are looking for a palette for work. It’s not as warm as most palettes are these days, and that makes them look more professional and contoured. It can also be used as a complementary palette to other all-shimmer palettes, so it is quite versatile.  

Basic Matte: Looks slightly warmer in person than in the product photo

Makeup Revolution Reloaded palettes

Yay my palettes are here before Christmas! I was really worried about the delivery because if they didn't manage to deliver it today, the next date would be next Thursday due to the holidayssss.

So here is an overview of my palettes. Now I have almost all the reloaded palettes except two.

I shall do a look for each palette and review them individually. Wow this blog is turning into a Makeup Revolution shrine. Not sponsored lol, I have maybe 2 readers in total, Mr Koala and me.

PS: When I made the order on Kosmetik4less, they gave me a free lottery ticket on Lottoland, and I won 9.10 euro from that yay! My first lottery win in Germany lol. I'm so pleased because that reduced the cost of these palettes to 16.80 euro muahahahaha

Have you ever been Makeup Shamed?

One of my favourite subreddits is MUACJdisccusion, and I'm a long-time lurker on there. Just a few minutes ago I posted a really long comment about makeup shaming, and I wanted to include it in my blog.

The topic was,  Have you ever been Makeup Shamed? I'm sure many of us who lurrve makeup have been in the situation where someone made a nasty comment or remark about your makeup, either because it's too heavy or you have on an unconventional colour like green lipstick or red eyeshadow. My friend told me about the time when she wore an orange lipstick to go to a wedding dinner, and her father said she looked like she was going to the wayang (dramatic show with painted faces). He insisted that she took it off, and eventually she did.

I feel really sad that our makeup choices lead to shaming by our closest ones, in fact my mother is also fond of saying such hurtful remarks. My mother is incredibly low-maintenance when it comes to personal grooming, and she scoffs at women who wear makeup because she thinks they are vain and silly.

I don't pay too much attention to her because she gives me enough crap for being overweight anyway, but it sure dampens the mood especially before you gain the confidence in your makeup skills and are still learning about application and techniques. Many times she would walk into the room and see me bake my entire oily face, and she would say I look like a ghost. Pfft like I was planning to go out like that. Whatever Mom.

So here is my reddit post, and if anyone is reading this, please share your makeup shaming experience.

https://www.reddit.com/r/muacjdiscussion/comments/a7k2k7/have_you_ever_been_makeup_shamed/?sort=new

Have You Ever Been Makeup Shamed?

Yes, by almost everyone I know, from my family, friends, partner, students, and random passersby. But all in varying degrees, from innocent comments like, "Your makeup is so heavy today" to "You look like Guan Gong" (Chinese God of Warrior with a famously red face).

Being in a predominantly Chinese society (Singapore), you are expected to wear natural and light makeup or even no makeup, and Western style makeup is considered slightly offensive. I'm mostly quite lazy so I go without makeup for 90% of the time, and the other 10% i go full face, it's all or nothing for me. And so the difference between the two faces are too much for most people, and they get such a shock every time.

I would like to say I don't care but I do, I don't want to be made fun of or talked about behind my back. And makeup has such a superficial reputation that women who wear too much makeup or depend on makeup are seen as vain or bimbotic. I will admit, before I was interested in makeup, I too didn't like the heavily made up look and I specifically hated the thick falsies that seems to originate from Taiwan or Japan. Mostly I just brushed off makeup as a frivolous and vain hobby, much like girls who love luxury bags or jewelry. I too would go around proudly stating that I don't understand or like branded bags, like I was above such materialistic possessions.

I still don't understand or like branded bags, but I keep my mouth respectfully shut now when my relatives eagerly discuss their latest acquisitions. And most of my family and friends are now very supportive of my makeup hobby, I've done a couple of wedding makeup for my relatives, and they would come over to my place and get makeup tips and buy from my large collection of makeup if I had new stuff that they liked. I had a small business selling makeup that I imported from the US, and they loved the performance and prices as compared to the stuff being sold in Singapore.

My partner was one of those "I don't like makeup on women" kind of men, but he has come to realise that that's not necessarily always true, and he is really supportive of my hobby now. Recently I started a makeup blog and he is my only reader so far, giving constructive criticism and helping me out whenever possible.

I'm just really grateful for the support I get, because it hadn't always been this way. Recently I posted my first makeup post on Facebook with me wearing green eyeshadow, and the comments were so overwhelmingly positive that it was what made me start my blog. It could be that my skills and aesthetic has greatly improved from when I first started and was blindly copying beauty gurus also. But it still stings even when it's constructive criticism. My friend told me my eyebrows were too thick and it looked like I had double brows, and my partner said my cheeks were too dark and my chin too red. Both comments made me wipe off my makeup in a hurry, and they weren't even shaming me. I wish I could be as sassy and confident as some of the comments I've read in this thread, and I've read every single one. You guys are the best and give me so much inspiration...

Makeup Revolution Order on Kosmetik4less.de

So I didn’t do a look today but since Mr Koala just kindly upgraded my keyboard because ”You have a blog now”, I felt like I have to put this fancy pants keyboard to good use.

Last night, I discovered this website, Kosmetik4less.de, and I found they had new Makeup Revolution Reloaded palettes on it. They were 4.99 euro each, and I could choose a free Makeup Revolution I Feel Pretty palette if I spent more than 15 euro on Makeup Revolution items. I also got a sharpener to bring the total past 25 euro for free shipping, so I got a total of 6 palettes and one sharpener for 25.90 euro. Yes, I felt a little bit bad buying more palettes, because I need more palettes like a fish needs a bicycle muahaha.

The palettes I ordered are:

Makeup Revolution Iconic Fever

Makeup Revolution Basic Mattes

Makeup Revolution Velvet Rose

Makeup Revolution Visionary

Makeup Revolution Affection

Makeup Revolution I Feel Pretty – Pretty Incredible

As you can see, these are beautiful palettes, and there was also a new palette called Passion for Colour that looks really chalky and not pigmented on Youtube, so I skipped that. 

Makeup Revolution Passion for Colour

I feel that Makeup Revolution is good for a natural look as it blends so well, and you can get a nice wash of colour on the lids without too much effort, but for a more colourful look, you need crazy pigmented shadows which only the higher end brands can offer, and even they may struggle with.

Have you ever thought about the importance of blendability VS pigmentation? Of course, the ideal shadow is both pigmented and blendable, but it’s pretty impossible, the shadows are going to lean one way or other. I once bought a Viseart Neutral Matte palette and was underwhelmed by how patchy and lacking pigmentation it was with arm swatches. 

Viseart Neutral Matte

Viseart Neutral Matte Arm Swatches

I couldn't believe this palette was raved by all those youtubers and makeup artists, and it looks so terrible. I sold that palette within a month, and stayed away from Viseart. But now, I’m thinking that maybe the beauty of Viseart lies in it’s blendability and long-lasting staying power on the eyes without creasing. Sometimes we get so carried away with swatches. Viseart is not cheap at all, in fact I feel it’s terribly overpriced. If it was priced at 8 euro instead of 80 euro, maybe it wouldn’t have been as well-received.

Consumers tend to attach the value of the palette to its price, and that’s why I think people are raving about Natasha Denona and Pat McGrath palettes. No doubt these are good palettes, but their astronomical prices make them seem better than they are. For me, I believe makeup production is inherently cheap, and a 4 euro Makeup Revolution palette is not necessarily bad for your skin or bad in performance. It just means the product is targeted at the mass market and not makeup enthusiasts. Like a Youtuber said, Makeup Revolution is not trying to create the best eyeshadow, but they are providing good quality shadows at a really low cost, and we should appreciate them. They may not be the most original brand, but I appreciate the effort in providing affordable eyeshadow to people who may not be able to afford high end. 

Most people who criticise Makeup Revolution say that they rip off the concept and colours of popular palettes, and therefore shouldn't be supported. We can see this in every industry, the industry leader will come out with the original product, and every other brand copies the idea. From fashion to technology. So why should makeup be any different? I don’t support fake palettes like those from China or Indonesia, because you have no idea what ingredients go in them and they could be potentially dangerous. However, actual brands such as BH cosmetics, Morphe, Makeup Revolution, Colourpop, these are really reliable big brands that create affordable and good quality products that rival high end. Even if they didn't come up with the orignal design, we rely on them to bring the trends to the masses. 

So being a cheapo at heart, I really love dupes and will support them with all my cheapo heart. Anyway, I am really looking forward to getting my palettes, and I will do a look a day for each of these palettes when I receive them.

Warm Look featuring Makeup Revolution Reloaded Newtrals 3

This is the look that I created with the Makeup Revolution Reloaded Newtrals 3 palette.

Makeup Revolution Newtrals 3

This palette is full of cranberry shades, mostly reddish plums and pinks with a couple of gold and orange. It’s definitely a warm palette, and the one thing I can’t figure out is what it is a dupe of. The Reloaded line seems to be dupes of more famous palettes, such as Anastasia’s Modern Renaissance, Subculture, and Urban Decay’s Naked Heat.

Top: Anastasia Modern Renaissance

 Bottom: Makeup Revolution Iconic Vitality

Top: Anastasia Subculture

Bottom: Makeup Revolution Iconic Division

But no one seems to know what the Newtrals 3 is a dupe of. I think Newtrals 2 is a dupe for the Venus XL palette as shown, but I can't be sure.

Makeup Revolution Newtrals 2

Venus XL palette

Anyway, the look I got is very warm but not orangey. It’s probably good for Chinese New Year with the red and gold looking like a red packet. It was also easy to blend and pigmented enough to get the effect that I want. It’s not the most pigmented pigment that ever pigmented, that’s for sure, but sometimes for a strong colour like cranberry, you look for blendability over pigment. I bought the Reloaded palettes on sale from Beautybay for 4 euro each, and I’m constantly surprised by how much I like it. I have the Iconic Division *Subculture dupe*, Newtrals 2 and 3. The blendability reminds me of the Elf Mad for Mattes palettes, which is my go-to for doing makeup on clients.

Left: Elf Mad for Matte Summer Breeze (Second)

Right: Elf Mad for Matte Nude Mood (Original)

For red-based shadows, I personally find cranberry and pink more flattering than orange and peach. It could be because of my cooler skin tone. Although I have yellow in my skin, there’s a lot of pink and red rather than orange and beige. For my foundation, I prefer a yellow base to cancel the redness on my face, but orange shadows never look flattering on me. My entire Morphe 35O2, which can be described as shockingly orange, is a nightmare to work with, but I love the richness of the burnt orange shades so I keep trying. 

Morphe 35O2

Maybe instead of using a peach in the transition, I should try a mustard yellow or light brown to keep it from being too orange. Too bad the palette is in Singapore. Oh Mr Koala asked why I used mustard yellow in the previous post to warm up the transition. I have to give him points for reading my blog. Anyway, mustard yellow is closer to our skin tone than green or red, so using it will help blend the colours seamlessly, especially if the contrast is too much. Just put a little into the crease as you blend the colours and you will see how it helps. Of course, that is assuming your skin tone is like mine. 

I’m looking forward to getting the Iconic Fever palette in the Reloaded line, as that’s the dupe for Naked Heat which looks so terracotta. I shall definitely do another look on that if I get it eventually.

Top: Urban Decay Naked Heat

Bottom: Makeup Revolution Iconic Fever

You have no idea how many pictures were taken and deleted due to wonky false lashes... hate them so much when they are wonky. It's not like you can see them being wonky but they sure show up in pictures.

Ok random story time:  I wanna tell a very sad story about how I stepped on the Cat's tootsie roll today... Usually I wear home slippers all the time at home, but I happened to be washing them today, the first time since I first got them. I was taking pictures of my eye look in the living room without my glasses, and as I walked back to the room, I stepped on something cold and rubbery. I looked at it without my glasses, and it looked like a leaf. I put on my glasses and holy shit, it was a totally random roll of poop in the middle of the living room. I have no idea why the Cat did this, she is usually really good about using the litter. And I have to strike the lottery to be able to step on it with my bare foot. If I had been wearing my slippers, or my glasses, this would not have happened. And so, I shall forever remember this day as the first time I stepped on poop.

Not sorry at all 

Green Smoky Eyeshadow for Christmas

I have this gorgeous dark green sweater that I wore for Christmas 3 years ago in Germany, and when I rediscovered it last month, I immediately decided to wear that again this year and create a green eyeshadow look that would match the sweater. Yes I know you're not supposed to match your makeup to your clothes, but I like the matchy matchy look, and anyway the sweater is such a deep green that it wouldn't clash with any shade of green eyeshadow.

So began my journey. I have always loved green eyeshadow and I have bought entire palettes just for a great shade of green. The shade Vestment in the Kat von D Saint and Sinner holiday palette for 2017 was a great example (it was half-priced in Sephora's post Christmas sale), and the entire green row in the Wet and Wild Comfort Zone palette too.

Kat Von D Saint and Sinner Palette

Wet and Wild Comfort Zone 

However, those two palettes didn't make the cut for my limited luggage when I moved to Germany last month (or so I thought), so i was in a position where I had 90% warm-toned palettes and no good green. On my first attempt, I used the greens from my new Makeup Revolution Reloaded Iconic Division palette, but it wasn't pigmented enough and I blended myself into a raccoon.

Makeup Revolution Reloaded Iconic Division

I also made the mistake of trying halo eyes with gold and I should have known better. Not once had halo eyes looked good on me, and definitely not with a fussy colour like green. So after that failure, I had to look more closely at the limited palette collection I have with me. I found some greens in my Jaclyn Hill Palette, I realised I actually have the new Wet and Wild Comfort Zone palette with 10 shades, and with these colours, I blended close to 10 different greens until I got a smoky and wearable look that I was satisfied with.

Morphe Jaclyn Hill Palette

Wet and Wild New Version Comfort Zone

Green is so hard to work with because it clashes all most skin tones, unless you have a lot of olive in your skin. I used a mustard yellow and brown colour to blend it up into my crease, and a darker navy green to smoke it out in the outer corner. I think a warm brown is vital for the look to be natural and wearable, otherwise it might just look like I pasted green haphazardly onto my eyes. The blending is also difficult because you need the green to fade into a warm brown and then into the brow. The intensity of the colours and the blendibility of the shadow is really tested.

The last time I wore green eyeshadow was on NYE last year, and I used the beautiful green duochrome from the Saint and Sinner Palette.

Arm swatches of Saint and Sinner palette. Fourth shade from the top 

If I had it here, I would have used that for sure. I guess once a year for green eyeshadow is good enough for me :) Anyway, I hope I can successfully recreate this look again on Christmas, Merry Christmas y'all