Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips in Classic Nude

Hi all!  I'm officially done my undergrad...and well frankly, not too excited to start my life as a working citizen , I wanna be at school again!  But I'm back again with another item.  Needless to say, half my makeup collection is composed of neutral shades (browns, taupes, champagnes and pinks) but for some reason, I still can't get enough of it...I wonder why, hmmmmm?  This is no exception, I gave in to my neutral eyeshadow calling when I purchased this.  This is the Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips in Classic Nude, which I probably shouldn't have bought simply because I already have UD Naked 2, but yeah, I don't have much self restraint!

I only got this yesterday, so I can only tell you guys about my first impressions of the palette since I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet, but I do own another shimmer strip from Physicians Formula.  I think what got me is the cute packaging...which shouldn't because packaging can be very misleading.  It is a laced wrapped packaging with a little bow and the name of the shimmer strip on top.  When you open it up, there are 9 color 'strips' and a sponge tip applicator (which I don't use).  On the back of the packaging, it explains how you can create your classic nude look using the combinations of colors, but that doesn't mean you can't experiment with different combinations though!  It's really portable and definitely travel friendly, I was scared that the magnetic closure was flimsy, but it stays closed with it needs to.  Too bad it doesn't come with a mirror, or else that would make it a little better!  From my swatches, almost all the colors are shimmery (hence the name shimmer strips), minus the last dark brown, which is more of a matte brown with tiny flecks of silver glitter.  I was hoping for this to have a bit more pigmentation, but I know from using my other shimmer strip from Physicians Formula that the colors show up more vibrant when wet, so maybe I'll have more luck the colors are wet (actually re-edit, below will have swatches of colors wet and dry).  For the price, I am a bit disappointed because I'm expecting a certain standard from drugstore products if they are priced at a particular point.  I bought this for $10 CDN, so it's like the price of a L'oreal quad or a Revlon quad, but the upside is that I have 9 colors to work with.  The colors though, as beautiful as they are, when swatched, I found that there were some repeats in this palette, like the two taupes that are in the palette and the two lightest highlighter color.

Swatches?
*Swatches are done without a primer.

Color description from left to right:
1) Dark brown matte with tiny tiny silver flicks of glitter
2) A light brown taupe shimmer
3) A peach champagne shimmer
4) A chocolate brown shimmer
5) A golden tan shimmer
6) A peach shimmer with a pink douchrome effect (kind of hard to see)
7) A darker golden tan shimmer
8) A light brown taupe shimmer (almost identical to color 2)
9) A frosty light pink shimmer

Dry Swatches:

Wet Swatches:

So here is my two cents on my first impressions on Physicians Formula's Shimmer Strips in Classic Nude.  Let me know what you think!

Sally Girl Connecting Eyeshadow Singles

So after my first experience with Sally Girl baked eyeshadows, I decided to head back to Sally Beauty to pick up some more eyeshadows from Sally Girl!  I did a little research regarding these because I wasn't sure if I really wanted to pick some up, but many have said that these were good for their buck...and I'm definitely on that boat with them!

 

Top left to right bottom: Golden Bronze, Taupe, Coral, Blue Marine, Bronze, Gun Metal, Cinnamon, Champagne and Brick

What are these?

Individually packaged eyeshadow singles by Sally Girl.  Each is 1.1g/0.4oz of eyeshadow, which isn't too bad, probably would take some time for me to use these up because I have other shadows which I use on a daily basis!  Most colors that I got were either satin or frosty, but two of them Gun Metal and Blue Marine are pretty matte like, so that was definitely a surprise for me!  I ended up getting mostly neutrals again...I think that this is a weakness of mines...I have Naked 2, yet I'm still buying more taupes and neutral browns.

Packaging?

Honestly, for the price, the packaging is as good as it can get, it's kind of like the Wet n' Wild eyeshadow singles.  The eyeshadow is in a black plastic casing and then there is a clear top.  I like the fact that unlike their baked shadows, these singles have their name on them!  The cool thing about these is that they connect together, so you can make your own little compact palettes, and you can switch them up too!

Colors?

They have a lot of color variety, but I found that they didn't have really dark dark colors.  Maybe my Sally Beauty didn't have every color in stock, but the darkest color I saw on display was a dark charcoal grey, but with that said though, they definitely have a wide range of neutrals and browns which is great if you're looking for maybe alternative to making you're own 'Naked' palette.  They have some beautiful colors which I picked up, Bronze, Taupe and Brick!

Price?

In the States, these are $0.99 US but in Canada, they are $1.39 CDN, and honestly, I think that's fine for the quality that they are.  It would be definitely better if they were only $0.99 CDN!  I think that this is a great way for people to try out new colors without breaking the bank!

My Take?

I'm glad I went to Sally Beauty to check these out again because I was a bit skeptical because for the price, I was a bit hesitant about it.  The display for these weren't exactly pretty or attention grabbing, so I wasn't sure about what I was getting myself into, even my boyfriend was like have you even tried these before and stuff like that.  I did find Gun Metal and Blue Marine to be a bit on the powdery side, but they are also the colors that were almost matte, so that might be it?  But all the other colors were absolutely gorgeous!  I like the fact that they can connect, which means that I won't have a bunch of single eyeshadows that are all scattered in my makeup bag, which means easy access to my products when I need them!

Swatches?

*All swatches done without primer.

Golden Bronze:

A cool toned chocolate brown satin.

Taupe:

A light taupe satin, with hints of pink.

Gun Metal:

A light matte pink.

Cinnamon:

A coral reddish bronze frost.

Coral:

A pink peach satin.

Champagne:

A light champagne satin.

Bronze:

A bronzed pink frost.

Brick:

A rich copper frost.

Blue Marine

A blue based teal with slight hint of gold and green (hard to tell from the swatch, but in pan, you can see it!).

Here are all the colors next to each other so that you can see them!

So here is my take on Sally Girl's connecting eyeshadow singles!  Let me know what you think!

Sally Girl Baked Eyeshadow Singles

Hello again!  I'm suppose to be studying for an exam I have for tomorrow but instead, I'm giving you my take on Sally Girl's baked eyeshadow singles!  I managed to get my hands on these at Sally's Beauty in Canada, while my boyfriend was in the area looking for a motorcycle shop!  I purchased 4 of these babies, they are so cute and definitely swatching pretty nicely on my arm right now, but lets see how they will do when I actually wear them!

I have heard about this company, but have never really purchased anything from them simply because it's hard to find in Canada, I think they are only sold at Sally's Beauty?  But even at Sally's Beauty, the display for Sally Girl was like hidden underneath the cash registrar, and some of the stuff wasn't even stocked up, so even if I wanted to try more things from them, I would probably have to go back and check if they have more stock of other things.  I think most of their stuff is $1.39 CDN (in the US, I think it's only $0.99 US), which isn't bad and if they are good, then its definitely a return trip to buy more stuff!  I'm such a sucker for baked shadows, I have so many, but it's like an obsession  along with my collection of purple and brown shades.  I wasn't brave enough to try out the more colorful colors they had but I wanted more neutral colors to try out to see if I liked their products.  I managed to pick up 4 of them, from left to right starting at the top left corner: 1) a champagne shimmer, 2) light lilac purple shimmer,  3) a cooper brown shimmer and 4) light pink shimmer.  For the cooper brown, in the pan itself, it looks like a chocolate brown, but when I swatched it, it looked like a cooper color, so definitely not as true to color as I wanted, but its still a nice color.  Now in the first two photos, it probably looks like there's a lot of product, but in reality, the actual pan is bigger than a quarter and the actual ball of product, is probably the size of a penny, but for the price, I'm not really complaining too much.  I can definitely see these are being travel friendly because they are so small and convenient to throw in my makeup bag!  PS: the ones that I got had no names, which isn't very helpful for me because its like ughhhhhhhhhhh LOL!

Swatches?
*All swatches are done with out a primer!
Since these are baked shadows, I decided to not only do a regular swatch, but also wet swatches.

Dry Swatches:

Wet Swatches: 

I found these looked better swatches dry rather than wet, when wet, its like crumbly feeling when I swatch them, so I think these would definitely be a good way to add a wash of color on my lids!  But if swatched wet, it definitely brings out the intensity of the colors!

So here is my take on Sally Girl baked eyeshadows, let me know what you think!

Essence Quattro Eyeshadow Quad in Over the Taupe

So I managed to pick this cute thing up yesterday on my local trip to Shoppers Drug Mart!  In Canada, we can only get Essence products at Shoppers Drug Mart and fortunately, they haven't marked up the prices like they do with everything else.  I had always passed on the quads from Essence because no colors really stood out to me, but for some reason, I saw this one and was like hmmmm, time to try it now!

I decided to get Over the Taupe which is a taupe based quad, in it are three actual taupe colors and one light peach highlighter.  I think that this quad definitely satisfies my love for taupe, and since I have the Maybelline Color Tattoo in Tough as Taupe, it would serve to be a great base for this eyeshadow quad!.  All the colors are are satin finish, nothing glittery, which is what I like about it!  While swatching the colors, they felt soft and buttery, so I'm hoping that is a good step forward towards whether or not they are actually good on the lid or not!  But I did notice something though, all of my previous products from Essence were made in Poland, but now, they are stamped with made in China, so just letting you guys know!  There is a decent amount of product, but I wish that all four colors had the same amount of product.

Swatches?
* All swatches done without primer.

 *All colors are satin finish.
Colors from left to right from the swatches:
1) A light peach satin
2) A light taupe satin
3) A brown taupe satin
4) A dark chocolate brown taupe satin













I'm definitely interested to see how these translate into a look and whether or not I'm going to purchase some more!  But for the price, it was originally $3.49 CDN, but for some reason, it scanned $2.29 CDN, even better!  Let me know what you think, of if there are any other quads from Essence that you have tried that I should give a try!

Hard Candy Top Ten Eyeshadow Collection in Green with Envy and Feelin' Blue?

Hello lovelies!  I'm back with another review!  I just realized while typing this, its mid April and its still lightly snowing in Canada...seriously, I love winter but I think it's really time that spring comes around soon!  Any who, I'm here to tell you guys about Hard Candy's new makeup collection that has just recently hit Canadian Walmarts!

 

What are these?

These are palettes that are part of Hard Candy's new makeup collection.  Each palette has a color theme with it.  It currently comes in 5 different variations, I only picked up 2 because these were the only ones that interested me!  There are 10 shadows that range from light to dark.  All these are shimmery or frosty, so for all those who want matte shadows, unfortunately these aren't for you then!

Packaging?

I actually really like the packaging of these palettes, it's really cute with the lace!  The packaging is pretty sturdy in my opinion, you could put these in your makeup bag and wouldn't be scared about them opening up!  I did find these a bit hard to open, so if you just did your nails, probably not a good idea to try to open these palettes.  Inside every palette is a mirror, it's pretty decent sized but not a mirror for your full face.  Depending on the variation of the palette you buy, the color under the lace is different, so for Green with Envy, the color is green and Feelin' Blue, the color is blue.

Colors?

Like I said, these palettes come in 5 different color themes, the other ones that I didn't pick were pink, purple and neutral.  The two that I got were Green with Envy and Feelin' Blue.  Green with Envy has a combination of browns and greens, I found that whole palette had one actual vibrant green, but most of the other greens were like mossy greens.  The browns in this palette weren't too good, as much as I wanted them to be but they are okay.  Feelin' Blue is a combination of silvers and blues, definitely something different from what I have in my collection!  The first couple of colors look a bit similar, but the last couple of colors are amazing, so vibrant and pretty!

Price?

These are currently $5.95 CDN at Walmart.  This isn't bad considering you get 10 colors and 13g/0.4oz of product.  This is definitely something for those who want to experiment with color because it's not too expensive.  Maybe they will consider releasing other color variations, I would definitely be interested!

My Take?

I like these, but I can't say that I cannot live without them!  I think that these were pretty good pigmentation, minus a couple in each palette.  These are definitely not the same as MAC or Urban Decay, but for the price, there isn't much to complain about.  Some of the colors in both palettes had some fallout, so I would be very careful when applying these on the lid.  These definitely will last a lot longer if applied over a primer and even better if over a base.  I think Green with Envy could definitely be a neutral palette as well, but Feelin' Blue is definitely a colorful palette.

Swatches?

*Swatches are done with no primer.

Green with Envy:

 Colors from left to right:
1) Light champagne
2) A peach champagne
3) A light brown
4) A chocolate brown
5) A moss green with yellow undertones
6) A pale darkened lime green
7) A olive green with hues of gold
8) A green with brown undertones
9) An emerald green with brown undertones
10) A brown with green undertones
* Keep in mind, all the colors are shimmery.

Feelin' Blue:

 Colors from left to right:
1) A frosty white
2) A silver grey
3) A light baby blue with purple undertones
4) A darkened silver with blue undertones
5) A light purple blue
6) A bright turquoise blue
7) A dark blue teal
8) A jewel tone sapphire blue
9) A blue with undertones of purple
10) A navy blue
* Keep in mind, all the colors are shimmery.

So here is my take on Hard Candy's Top Ten Eyeshadow Collection in Green with Envy and Feelin' Blue, let me know what you think!