Em Cosmetics Life Moment Palette: Winter Life Ice Bunny Edition

The Ice Bunny palette is the second holiday Life Moment palette I got from Em Cosmetics.

I liked this one better of the two. The lip colors were better in the other palette, but I think the quality of the shadows are a little better in this one. Personally, I also like the colors in this palette more.

Em Cosmetics Life Moment Palette: Holiday Life New Year's Countdown Edition

On Cyber Monday, Em Cosmetics offered a buy one, get one free on everything deal. It would have been the perfect time to get two big Life Palettes, but I still can't afford to spend that much on it... so instead I got the two Holiday Life Moment palettes. This is the first one- The New Year's Countdown palette.

It's $29 and comes with 6 eye shadows, 2 lip colors, and 1 blush. I don't like pan lip colors, but they are nice enough to provide a little brush. The blush looks incredibly scary and dark but it's not too pigmented so it comes across much more wearable.

December Ipsy Bag

I got December's Ipsy bag a few days ago.

I think I need to change up my preferences again. 5 out of the 9 bags I've received have included nail polish... which I like, but how many bottles can I possibly use up really? I also got a perfume, which I don't care for. It's a good size, unlike the ones Birchbox does, but I'm so sensitive to perfume that I don't use most samples. This isn't my favorite bag, but it's not the worst. I do like the Pop Beauty eyeshadow trio.

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Wet n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Medley in No Neutral Ground

I recently picked up No Neutral Ground, one of Wet n Wild's limited edition Color Icon Eyeshadow Medley palettes from the Holiday 2013 In The Spotlight collection. This is my first time trying one of these palettes.

The palette comes with three shimmer overcoats, three pearl powders, and two matte definers.

Out of the whole palette, the only shadow I really like is the brown matte color. I looked at a lot of swatches of this palette and they all looked a lot more pigmented than what I experienced. It did seem that there was potential to build, which I only tried to do on the matte shades (two layers), but the initial one-swipe swatches were not very pigmented. They aren't unusable, but the colors aren't unique enough to be worth it.

Shopping My Stash Monthly Makeup Basket for December

I'm back with another makeup basket.

I've been doing the baskets for about 6 months now and this is the first month that I haven't been terribly excited about putting one together. I think I've finally decided to put together a Project 10 Pan to shake things up... which I will start in January. I'll also do a makeup basket for the products I want to get use out of.

This month, however, I will just continue with what I've been doing.

November Empties

I have a very tiny amount of empties this month. Once again, I have a few things that are getting close but just didn't manage to finish anything yet.

Essence Beauty Beats Eyeshadow swatches

It's been a while since I bought anything from Essence. It's been a while since my local Ulta had a limited edition Essence display at all. I probably didn't need these shadows but I felt weird not buying anything when I redeemed my reward points.

They are Justin Bieber themed, which may be why Ulta got the display when they got no others. I'm not a fan, but I do try not to let that get in the way of buying products when it wouldn't be obvious. I couldn't bring myself to get his perfume even though I liked it, but I did buy these and one of the Nicole by OPI polishes from the Justin Bieber collection.

They are all on the lighter, shimmery side. Out of all of them, I'm pretty impressed with the purple shadow. Drugstore purples are often really chalky and poorly pigmented regardless of finish. This had a nice texture and wasn't patchy. If you only get one, I'd suggest the purple.

An "I didn't really need these" drugstore haul

I went out today for some basics and ended up with a few other things.

November Ipsy Bag

I was surprised with my Ipsy bag this morning. I didn't get a tracking number for my bag this month but, I guess as long as I get the actual bag, it's fine.

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Outside of the actual bag, which I had to force open because the zipper was messed up, I'm really happy with this bag. I wasn't so excited with a few things when my Glam Room went up, but the colors changed my mind. I was particularly uninterested in the Starlooks eye liner because I didn't like the last Starlooks eye liner I got, but this one was really pretty. I'm also really happy that there are no hair products this month.

Hypokrite Cosmetics Danger eye shadow swatch

I bought an eye shadow from the recently launched Hypokrite Cosmetics. I discovered the line before it was even released because I follow the creator, Karli, on instagram. It was kind of cool to see the updates as it was being made and getting ready to launch.

Anyway, the line consists of neutral colored eye shadows, lipsticks, lip gloss and brow powders. I chose to get an eye shadow. I picked Danger, described as a dark cranberry, because I really think I don't have a color like it. The eye shadows are $11.49 each.

It's a really nice eye shadow. It was a nice texture that wasn't stiff but wasn't so soft it crumbled. The color is really pigmented, as well. This shadow is matte and it looks like all of them are.

Shopping My Stash Makeup Basket in November

I picked out my products for November, so here they are.  As with last month, I'm including the products that I'm trying to use up, thus often repeated, at the bottom. The rest are ones that I'm trying for the month.

It feels good to work through products. A lot of these are ones that I bought but rarely, if ever, used. I can definitely say that I have never once used either of the eye shadow sets.

October Empties

It's time for the products I've used up in October. I have to say, I feel proud of myself this month. There are a few products that have lasted me forever and they are finally done.

The Good, the Bad, and the Blah of October

This month I tried some products that I haven't used before. Quite a few of them have been sitting around for a while but I've never used them. Some were sample products that I just got in the last month or so. With all the new stuff that I tried, I didn't have as much trouble with finding products I liked or disliked.

The Good

Ipsy Bag for October

Even though I got my bag last week, I opened it today. I spent several days trying to get a baby squirrel out of my bathroom and didn't have a chance to get to Ipsy. But the squirrel is now outside so here it is.

Ipsy has a quiz to help personalize each person's bag to some degree. I'm pretty sure it doesn't work. I got 2 things I said I wasn't interested in. Still, it's not a bad bag and I still overall enjoy Ipsy.

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Shopping My Stash Makeup Basket for October

Once again, I have a selection of products that I want to use for the month.

I've realized that I have a lot of the same products month to month because I'm trying to use some products up. That can be a little boring, so I did include those but they are at the bottom. The rest of the products are ones that I'm just trying to get use out of... some may be repeats but aren't ones I'm necessarily trying to use up.

The Good, The Bad and The Blah of September

This month has been a really light month for me. I've used a lot of the same products that I've been using for months, so I don't have many products for favorites/dislikes. I didn't actually have anything that I really didn't like this month and only a few that I liked.

The Good

September Empties

I only have a few empties this month. I considered skipping a September Empties post and waiting until next month. I have a ton of products that are so close to being finished and I should be done with most of them by the end of October, but I wanted to go ahead and get rid of these.

September Ipsy Bag

I got my Ipsy bag several days ago and just got a chance to put it up.

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I do have to say this isn't my favorite bag. Overall, I think that all the colors are fairly blah... I can't even count the number of black eye liners I have and this is just one more to add to the pile. The nude lipstick is just a bad color on me because it's a little more orange-y. There were a few other potential products that I would have preferred.

The Balm Meet Matt(e) Nude Palette Swatches

I've heard a lot of good things about this palette from several people online. When it showed up on HauteLook (referral link) recently, I decided to get it.

Personally, I don't know that I'd be inclined to use this palette alone. It's got some nice colors, especially the white, but I would probably use this palette in conjunction with other colors. The quality is very good, though.... I really like the quality of all The Balm eye shadows I've tried. If you like the colors and like mattes, then this palette is great.

The Balm Balm Jovi Palette swatches

I got a couple palettes from The Balm the last time it was on Hautelook (referral link). I like all the palettes that I have from The Balm so I figured I'd like this one, too.

This palette includes eye shadows, a blush, a highlighter, and two lip/cheek colors. I really only buy palettes for eye shadow. While I understand the general appeal of having all products in one, I don't really like it much. I don't like pan lip products and have not had a palette that changed my mind. As for blushes/hightlights/bronzers in palettes- I don't ever find that I make an effort to use them when they are in palettes. Still, if you like that or travel a lot, this palette is great for that.

I did have a hard time getting the colors to show up accurately in the palette- they looked far duller than they actually are. The swatches more accurately represent the colors in the palette.

Shopping My Stash Makeup Basket for September

I have to say that I enjoy setting up a monthly makeup basket. I have products that I really want to use up and pulling them out makes it easier. I've also rediscovered some nice eye products that I forgot I had.

This basket is probably smaller than the previous ones. After a few months of doing it, I feel like I've finally got a number of products that I can reasonably use.

August Empties

It's once again the time to throw things away. It's actually one of my favorite things to do because it gives me a chance to see that I'm actually using things and also to throw out old or bad products. This month I think I have as many things to throw away as I emptied. I also sent two boxes full of products to my sister.

Em Cosmetics Starter Kit Swatches

Over the weekend, the newly launched Em Cosmetics offered a starter kit. The kit was consisted of an eyeliner and lipstick for $27.50 and a free deluxe sample of the Life Palette. I've been interested in trying Em Cosmetics but the Life Palette, their big product, is $75 and I just couldn't do that right now.

I did like that you got to pick your own eyeliner and lipstick instead of them being already grouped together. You didn't get to pick the Life Palette sample so I don't know if they were all the same or not.

I liked all the products that I got, with maybe the exception of the pan lip color in the sample. I just don't really like pan lip colors. My favorite thing was the middle color in the eyeshadow sample. I also really liked the color of the eyeliner.

Shipping was really fast. I placed my order on Friday and got it yesterday.

The Good, The Bad, and the Blah of August

I don't really have much for this month but I did manage to find a few things.

The Good

Wet n Wild To Muse and Carouse Trio Swatches

The next trio I got from Wet n Wild's Pop Art Craze collection is To Muse and Carouse.

This was my favorite of the ones that I got and I realized that I keep getting nudes. These nudes are darker than the ones in Hard Being the It Girl and showed up for me a lot better. I also liked this blue better.

Wet n Wild Hard Being the It Girl Trio Swatches

One of the Wet n Wild Pop Art Craze trios I picked up was the Hard Being the It Girl trio.

It's probably one of my least favorite of the trios. I think the quality is more in line with the regular Color Icon eye shadows that the last one but the colors are kind of blah for me. For me, the browbone and eyelid colors are pretty much flesh-toned, with one slightly more pink and one slightly more yellow than my skin. The blue is actually pretty pigmented, but it's not my favorite. The might be a good option for someone that wants mostly nude eye shadow with a little pop of color.

Wet n Wild Your 15 Minutes Aren't Up! Trio Swatches

I actually managed to find a Rite Aid that had the Wet n Wild trios from the summer's Pop Art Craze collection. The store had 5 of the 6 trios and I picked up 3 of them there and got the other 3 at a different store. The first one up is the Your 15 Minutes Aren't Up! trio.

I think this one probably has the worst pigmentation. That tends to be common with these type of colors, though, and the colors aren't unuseable in any way. This palette might be a good option if you want bright colors but maybe don't want them so bright.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Catwalk Palette Swatches

I've wanted a palette from Anastasia Beverly Hills since I tried a sample eye shadow palette card. I've had a hard time finding the palettes in stores around here so I didn't get the one I had a sample of. I did find the Ulta exclusive* Catwalk palette, though. It's $29 for 10 eye shadows and a dual-ended brush.

Most of the shadows are really nice and soft. I would say the exceptions are LBD, Day Rate, and Pose... but even those aren't bad. It's another nude palette with mostly shimmer shades, but a few mattes as well.

Wet n Wild Nude Awakening 8-Pan Palette Swatches

Wet n Wild's Nude Awakening 8-pan palette was the second of 2 palettes released in spring and re-released in summer.

Honestly, I'd say you can skip this one. There are so many nude palettes of varying prices and this is just more of the same. It's got the Wet n Wild Color Icon quality and I liked most of the colors, but I probably have all of these colors in a few other palettes. Now, if you need a nude palette, this is a good, well priced option.

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Wet n Wild Going in the Wild 8-Pan Palette swatches

The Wet n Wild Going in the Wild palette was one of the two 8-pan palettes from their spring release and I couldn't find them anywhere. I eventually found them last month. At first I thought that Rite Aid was just crazy late putting them out, but I read that they were re-released this summer.

If I had to suggest one of the limited Wet n Wild eye shadow products to find this summer, it would be this one. They should still be around... I saw them as recently as last week. I love both eyelid shades, especially the left side. It's got a gold sparkle that doesn't really show up in the pictures.

Ipsy bag for August

It's time for a new Ipsy bag.

In this bag, I got a lot of useful products, but I have to say I'm a little disappointed with what I didn't get. There were 12 potential products and I really wanted some of the things I didn't get, especially the new Urban Decay lipstick. The products I did get are still good, though, and I'm sure that I'll use them all.

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Shopping My Stash Makeup Basket for August

In July I was overly ambitious. I pretty much took all the samples I could find and decided to use those... along with so many other products. While I did make it through quite a few skincare samples, I had so many other products that I never got to at all.

This time, I do still have several of the samples I didn't get to but I wanted to limit some categories to just a few products that I want to use up or, in the case of eyeshadow, get some dedicated use out of.

The Good, The Bad and The Blah of July

I haven't done a favorites post since March favorites. I actually have some products this month, though, so I thought I'd share.

The Good

July Empties

It's time for more empties! Yay!

I don't think I have as many empty products as I did last month but I definitely have more samples. I also went through my lip gloss and eyeliner to get rid of any old or crappy products.

July Ipsy Bag

I finally got my Ipsy bag for July. That is my one problem with Ipsy... I don't usually get it until more than halfway through the month. But, thus far, I've been pleased with most of the products I've received so I'll live with it.

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Shopping My Stash Makeup Basket for July

I did a makeup basket for June with products I want to use up and also products that I never used or rarely used. I meant to put July's basket up last week but I had some things come up and just didn't have time. Luckily, I did make the basket and take the pictures before all that so I already started using them.

This month I decided to be ambitious with samples. I don't know how many I'll get through, but I'm going to try to get some done.

June Empties

I've never done an empties post before because I wasn't trying to use up products. I always got so much new stuff that I rarely made an attempt to finish anything. Now I'm making the effort to use the backlog of products before getting new ones. I've also been going through my collection and getting rid of things that are expired or just terrible for me. I think for a while I'll have a lot of these kind, too.

Wet n Wild Fergie Newport Nights palette swatches

I've been making an effort not to buy a lot, but I did pick up a few things at the drugstore recently. One of the things that I got was one of the new Fergie palettes by Wet n Wild. There were two palettes on the display and I got Newport Nights, the lighter of the two.

This palette is definitely for someone who likes pale colors. The four main colors are very light, especially the top two. None of the colors are bad, but they (and the other Fergie palette I've tried) don't have the quality of the Wet n Wild Color Icon eye shadows.

I do like the palette and I think it's a good option if you want colors like these. If you already have colors like them that are good quality, then this will not be better than that.

June Ipsy Bag

Overall, I have to say that I like the Ipsy subscription. I didn't post last month's bag, but I liked that one and the one before that. I'm not as fond of this one, mostly because of the glitter eyeshadow thing, but I still think it's well worth the $10 a month. Sign up here* to subscribe to Ipsy.

My Lipstick Collection Part 3: Orange and Peach

Next is orange. This color group is one of those that's tricky for me because I can look awful in some orange. I particularly look bad in the Lime Crime Cosmopop.

Also check out the first 2 parts:  Black, White and Unusual Colors and Nudes.

 Mirabella Pixie, Rimmel Kate 109, Rimmel Kate 12, NYX Indie Flick, Avon Tangerine, NYX Nyx, Lime Crime Cosmopop

My Lipstick Collection Part 2: Nudes

Up next are the nude lipsticks. I went through a period when I loved nude lipsticks so I got a ton of them. Unfortunately, I didn't always pay attention to the exact color so quite a few look really bad on me.

My Lipstick Collection Part 1: Black, White and Rainbow

As part of my efforts to work through the products I have instead of getting new ones, I started going through my lipsticks and sorting them by color. Mostly, I was trying to see how much of each color I had so I knew what I had no business buying more of. I'm embarrassed to say that I have way more than I even realized and even forgot that I bought some of them.

I have them broken down into quite a few color categories and this is the first one- lipsticks in black, white and unusual colors.

Lime Crime Styletto, NYC Blackula, MAC Warp Speed, Essence Cosnova, NYC Ghostly White

Shopping My Stash Makeup Basket for June

I've been feeling really unsatisfied with the amount of stuff I have in general and, more specifically, how much makeup stuff I have. Not that I want more... I want less. When I look at the drawers of products, knowing that I probably won't even be able to use it all before it goes bad, I get really anxious. I don't enjoy buying new products and, as I said in my last post, feel nothing but irritated by trying to find limited products.

Lately, I've been really enjoying watching makeup baskets, shop my stash, and empties videos rather than hauls and favorites. I think the makeup basket/shop my stash thing is a good idea and I wanted to do that to try to use up some products. I don't have every category in here, but I have a lot. Some are things that are on their last leg, some are samples, and some I've never or rarely used. Hopefully, I can do an empties post at the end of the month and include some of these products.

Limited Edition Rant

Yesterday, I went to the MAC counter to check out the Temperature Rising collection. I got there right as they opened at 10 with only two people there before me and they had sold out of some of the products before they even opened. How does that even happen? The employee said that other employees must have bought them. While I got the one thing that I was going to get anyway, it's really shitty that the counter didn't even get enough to sell on the release date.

MAC is the absolute worst about limited edition products. I mean, I understand limited editions. I collect more than makeup and everything has a limited edition... but usually people actually have a chance to get it. If you aren't on the website when products are first listed or at the store the moment it opens, you don't have a chance. I'm seriously close to not even bothering with MAC anymore.

And don't get me started on drugstore limited edition products. I've been trying to cut back on a lot of drugstore makeup spending, so the only things I've really been looking for are the few limited edition eye shadows that I wanted. While I found the summer Color Tattoos, I never found the spring Wet n Wild 8 pan palettes or the Summer L'oreal Infallible eye shadows. It's not just that they sold out before I had a chance to get them... they never had them at all. I'm practically tripping over limited edition nail polish, but the drugstores here just don't get all the eye shadow releases. I get that drugstores get to pick what they carry, but I feel like the brand websites should offer the limited edition products on their web stores.

I've been so frustrated with limited editions lately.

April Ipsy bag

A while ago, I had Birchbox but was continually disappointed  in it. I like the idea of Birchbox, though, so I looked into others. After a few months of watching other people's videos about their Ipsy bags, I decided to sign up. This is my first bag and I have to say that I'm impressed.

The Good, The Bad, and The Blah of March

The Good

ck one Vandalized Eyeshadow Quad swatches

I got the limited Street Edition ck one eyeshadow quad from Ulta the other day. It looks like the ck one line has several quads in the regular line, but I only saw this limited one.

Wet n Wild Megalast Liquid Lip Color review

I bought 2 of the Wet n Wild Megalast Liquid Lip Color recently. When I bought them, I didn't realize they were liquid lipsticks. I didn't find out until I opened them and I was excited at first because I've only tried the Lime Crime ones and I liked those but there are only 2 colors and they are much more expensive than Wet n Wild.

Sadly, the Megalast Liquid Lip Colors are awful. When I swatched them on my arm, they looked great but would not come off. I scrubbed at my skin, but there is still stuff on me. When I put them on my lips, I found that they looked patchy when I pressed my lips together. I guess I could have waited until they dried, but not closing my mouth until then was annoying. They also smell pretty bad.

They were really messy when I was trying to remove them, like the Lime Crime ones, but they would not easily come off. I scrubbed my face and still have spots that would not come off.

Cherry on Top and Do I Make You Blush?

Rimmel Haul

Walgreens has all Rimmel products 50% off, so I got a bunch of stuff.

NYX Love in Florance 02 Eat, Love, Be Fab palette swatches

I got one of NYX's new palettes. I saw it on someone's haul video on Youtube and loved the colors of this palette.

The Good, The Bad and The Blah of February

 I'm doing something a little different this month. Along with the products I loved and hated, I'm also doing some products that I used that I felt were pretty mediocre. I didn't hate them, but I didn't think they were all that good either. Also, if you are interested in non-beauty favorites, click here.

The Good