Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliners for Winter/Spring 2009

So, Urban Decay made a completely obnoxious move with their holiday collection this year: they released six new shades of 24/7 eyeliners, but each of the shades can ONLY be purchased inside sets with a bunch of the previously-existing shades (which means that most makeup junkies will end up with lots of doubles if they want the new shades). Here's the breakdown regarding the new shades:

Mildew (deep shimmery green): exclusive to Hi-Fi set, $29, which also includes Zero, Flipside, 1999, and Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner (ugh) in Distortion. The four 24/7s are mini sizes; the glitter liner is full-size.

Crash (rich eggplant with silver glitter): exclusive to Stereophonic set, $29, which also includes Zero, Underground, Gunmetal, and Heavy Metal Glitter Eyeliner in Midnight Cowboy (double ugh). Again, the four 24/7s are minis, and the glitter liner is full-size.

Corrupt (neutral brown with light copper shimmer and silver glitter), Binge (shimmery indigo), Eldorado (shimmery yellow-gold), and Oil Slick (black with silver glitter): exclusive to the 24/7 Super Stash, $36, which also includes Zero, Graffiti, Ransom, Rockstar and Stash. These aren't just mini-sized, they're, like... bite-sized... at just under 2-3/4" from tip to tip, uncapped. Even with their caps on, they're still shorter than my middle finger (I bet you can imagine what I'd like to say to Urban Decay with that finger, too). For 9 liners, they're only $4 each, but I only really like a few of the shades anyway, which makes those few feel tiny liners pretty damn expensive.

I've swatched the new liners in comparison to a few similar-ish shades from the permanent line, just for kicks. I left out some of the ones that I knew I wouldn't want to keep (like Ransom, Graffiti, and Zero, to name a few examples) out so I'd have the option of selling them in new condition. You can find my swatches and review of Flipside, Graffiti, Ransom, and Underground here, and the lovely KarlaSugar's swatches of the complete 24/7 line (minus the holiday exclusive shades) here.

Here are the close-ups of my swatches:

I was ecstatically looking forward to Binge when I heard there was finally going to be a navy 24/7, but that was the biggest letdown of the entire holiday season (in makeup terms) for me - in my opinion, Binge isn't navy at all. It's a bright indigo, and not very pigmented, either. Lame.

I love Rockstar and Stash, and rather like Eldorado on my waterline, but other than that I don't think the Super Stash is super at all. I've been told that the set-exclusive shades will be released individually this spring, so I may return my Super Stash and just wait until I can buy Eldorado on its own (I already have full sizes of Rockstar and Stash).

It was also totally pointless to buy the Stereophonic set just for Crash; I'd probably return that set too if I hadn't already sold the glitter liner on eBay. Crash is just Rockstar with silver glitter, pretty much, and I don't like glitter! Gunmetal is growing on me and Underground has been one of my favorite eyeliners since it came out in January, though, so that set isn't a total loss.

I do like Mildew very much, so the Hi-Fi set wasn't such a bad choice. Mildew has the same pigmentation problem as Binge, but I love the color so much (Mildew eyeshadow has to be one of my favorite greens ever!) that I'm willing to ignore that in this case. And, as ever, I adore Flipside, and I'd been wanting 1999 for a while anyway - don't ask me why, I know it has glitter, but for some reason I do kind of like that one.

As I mentioned in my last post, Sephora is currently having a 20% off Friends & Family sale online (code: FF2009), but Urban Decay has also hinted that they will soon be having their own Friends & Family sale. In the past, Urban Decay's F&F sales have been for 30% off, so if you want any of these sets, it might be worth waiting for Urban Decay's sale unless you have a Sephora gift card to burn or something like that.

That's all, folks!

24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil: Corrupt, Underground, Baked, Eldorado, Oil Slick, Gunmetal, Mildew, Stash, Rockstar, Crash, 1999, Binge

Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol. II

Sorry again for the deluge of posts. I'm trying to catch up a little and address some requests!

I'm a little embarrassed to say that I lusted after this palette from the minute I first heard about it in April until I finally got my hands on it a few weeks ago, and then I promptly stopped lusting. I didn't even open it for over a week. (There is clearly something wrong with me.) But with that in mind, you probably won't be surprised to hear the rest of my thoughts on this palette.

I think I expected that it would be completely swoon-worthy in every way, so that's probably why it's been a bit of a letdown. Don't get me wrong - it's a very nice palette - but it just doesn't leave me fanning myself, if you know what I mean. With that said, I think it has more wearable colors than the original Book of Shadows did. Unfortunately, it's just as bulky! =/

AC/DC, Nylon, Mushroom, Sphynx, Jinx, Homegrown, Misdemeanor, and Perversion are all exclusive to this palette; the rest of the shades are part of the permanent line and can be purchased as singles. (Perversion is available as a single, but the single has a different finish from the one in the palette. The single is very matte; the palette version claims to be matte, but has a more satiny finish, I feel.)

One quick tip - if you have trouble with fallout from super-glittery shades like Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, try the Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy (only available on Fyrinnae's website) with your eyeshadows. It provides a slightly tackier base for the glitter particles to stick to and will completely eliminate the fallout problem. It works in the same way for difficult-to-work-with loose powder eyeshadows, mineral or otherwise. (I highly recommend Fyrinnae products in general, if you like ordering from e-tailers and/or small private businesses! They have the best customer service you will ever find anywhere! ... and no, they're not paying me to say this. I just love their products and have a huge friend crush on the two guys who run the company, to boot. =p)

Anyway, back to Urban Decay. The Book of Shadows Vol. II retails for $48 and is available from Sephora, Ulta, Amazon.com, Beauty.com, UrbanDecay.com, etc. Sephora is currently having a 20% off Friends & Family sale online (code: FF2009), but Urban Decay has also hinted that they will soon be having their own Friends & Family sale. In the past, Urban Decay's F&F sales have been for 30% off, so it might be worth waiting unless you have a Sephora gift card to burn or something like that.

Here are some close-ups of the shades:

Book of Shadows Vol. II: Perversion, Gunmetal, Ecstasy, AC/DC, Nylon, Sellout, Mushroom, Sphynx, Half Baked, Twice Baked, Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, YDK, Jinx, Flipside, Homegrown, Misdemeanor

Maybelline Stylish Smokes Eyeshadow Quads

Yep, I'm just procrastinating with a posting binge.

Here we have the not-really-new-anymore Maybelline Stylish Smokes eyeshadow quad collection. Oddly enough, this may actually have some new information and sights for your pretty eyes, since Maybelline recently added two more Smokes quads (Plum and Sapphire) to the collection. The original release of four debuted a few months ago. (That's also why the swatch pictures for Plum and Sapphire are unlike the first four - they were taken at a totally different time and place.)

Overall I think these are quite nice, but the quality can be inconsistent. Some of the shades are chalky with poor pigmentation, others are chunky with poor pigmentation, and others still are just peachy-perfect. Annoyingly, every quad has 1-2 shades I absolutely LOVE and the rest I feel like I could do without, so I could never quite decide what to do with mine. I eventually decided against keeping them in the interest of keeping my stash minimized, but not before seriously considering depotting them all so I could keep 1/3 of the shades from all the quads...

Also, just for your information, the purple shade in the Charcoal quad is almost identical to MAC Mothbrown (LE from the Barbie collection), and the deep green in the Emerald quad is similar to MAC Humid.

These retail for $6-7 each and are available in most drugstores.

Stylish Smokes Eyeshadow Quad: Natural Smokes, Charcoal Smokes, Emerald Smokes, Amethyst Smokes, Plum Smokes, Sapphire Smokes

Revlon Matte Eye Shadows

Some of you may have seen these swatches before, as I've been basically sitting on them since March (part of my backlog of swatches that need to be posted...). Hopefully that's not too big of a deal!

On the whole, I was reasonably impressed with these, just because there aren't that many good matte eyeshadows available in the drugstore, and these are definitely of decent quality. I found the first four in the swatch picture (Vintage Lace through Luscious Lime) to be a little bit chalky, but not too bad. I absolutely LOVE the other five, though. I can't see myself wearing Venetian Blue except maybe some Halloween, but the last four (Tempting Teal through Rich Sable) are just stunning and all could make great crease colors. I've heard Vintage Lace compared to MAC Blanc Type; the colors are pretty similar, but I do prefer the MAC Matte² formula in this case (Blanc Type is smoother and more pigmented than Vintage Lace). On that note, though, I'd say that the last five shades in the swatches definitely have a feel and finish similar to MAC Matte²s.

These are $5 each in most drugstores, and you can often find Revlon BOGOF. Cool, huh?

Matte Eyeshadow: Vintage Lace, Peach Sorbet, Pink Innocence, Luscious Lime, Venetian Blue, Tempting Teal, Riviera Blue, Aubergine, Rich Sable

A Potpourri of Thoughts on Clinique's Black Tie Violets Collection and Much, Much More

There has been a lot of hype over Clinique's new Violet Luxe Brush-On Cream Liner (limited edition with the Winter 2009 Black Tie Violets collection) on the MUA Makeup Board, so I was extremely excited to get it when I found out my Nordstrom had it in-stock and available for sale last week. I hurried over there and picked it up after very briefly checking out the tester, as I knew it was LE, have otherwise only had good experiences with the Clinique cream liners, and could clearly see that the Violet Luxe color was gorgeous.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much where my excitement ended. I took it home, tried it on my eyes that night, and found - to my frustration - that it just wouldn't go on evenly. I kept trying to layer it, but consistently ended up with a sheer purple line with a super thin, darker line just above it where the product kind of clumped up... not attractive (you know, almost like what you see when someone has applied false eyelashes too far from their lash line - there's a visible gap between the lash line and the line of product).

I tried to swatch it on my arm tonight, and experienced the same problem. This eyeliner is just not very pigmented, period. I'd give it three out of five stars overall because the Violet Luxe color really is stunning, but the quality of this particular cream liner shade is majorly lacking. I decided to take a picture comparing it to the other two Clinique cream liners I have (Bronze and Egyptian, both of which are discontinued but available at many cosmetic outlet stores), and then threw in the Stila Bronze Smudge Pot for good measure since I've heard people comparing Clinique's and Stila's bronzes before. On that note, let me take this opportunity to mention that Stila's Bronze Smudge Pot is one of my all-time favorite eyeliners!

Definitely view this one close-up, too. You can really see how Violet Luxe is easily the least pigmented of the four, and that's after I layered it on as thickly as I could (seriously). Sad to say it, but I think this is going back to Nordstrom! :(

In any case, if you still want it (lol), Violet Luxe is available now on Nordstrom's website and in some Nordstrom stores, and should be available from everyone that sells Clinique over the next couple of months, I believe. It retails for $14.50.

P.S. - I did check out the other items from the Black Tie Violets collection, and while I didn't swatch them, I'll share with you my thoughts in brief: the lip products are nice, but everything else underwhelmed me. The blush was shrug-worthy, but then again, I'm not generally a fan of blushes with stripes. The eyeshadow quad was even less pigmented than the eyeliner and just plain sucked, I'm sorry to say. (But before you think I just denounce everything Clinique, I should also mention that the Totally Neutral eyeshadow trio is one of my most used products and the only palette that goes with me EVERY time I travel... and I adore the Cream Shaper pencils... so there you go.)

P.P.S. - I found a few more LOTDs hiding in an archived folder on my computer from back when I swatched the Neutrogena Lip Sheers, so go check out that post again, as it's been updated.

P.P.P.S. - While we're on the note of finding things, I recently discovered there are actually six Wet 'n' Wild Fantasy Makers eyeshadow duos, not four. Oops. I'll swatch the other two ASAP and update that post as well once I have.

P.P.P.P.S. - Sorry for the gap in posting. I've been really busy and just didn't realize how much time had already passed since my last post! While I'm checking in, I should update you on my progress on the Baroque Challenge. I last weighed myself while at home on a break from school last week and it looked like I'd lost another two pounds, but that was a different scale than the one I normally use so who knows if it's calibrated the same or not. I'll let you know what happens when I weigh myself tomorrow on my normal scale!

Thanks for reading :) hehe...