Review: Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

So by now, most people have heard of the Naked 2 Palette from Urban Decay. It’s the follow up to their best selling Naked Palette (which I still don’t have. Long story, but I’ll be purchasing soon. After I purchase my textbooks.) And it. is. amazing! The colors are all slightly warmer toned, and more mediums, which I like, since I don’t do a lot of dark eye looks. You get 12 full sized eye shadows, a double ended brush, and a mini Naked Lip Junkie lip gloss. I convinced my little sister to let me borrow her camera so I could get pictures that would do it justice, since my iPhone really wasn’t and I still can’t find my camera.

The twelve colors are Foxy, Half Baked (dupe from Naked, but it’s gorgeous!), Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, Snakebite, Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted, and Blackout.

Foxy is a matte pale yellow, it’s kind of chalky, and if you have skin like mine it won’t always show up, but I do use it a lot under my brow, and it does lift the brow a little for me.

Half Baked is a golden glitter that is really creamy and pretty. Great pigmentation, and I love it.

Bootycall is a shimmery cream color that is also a great highlight, or for use in the corner of your eyes. This one has great color payoff and really can brighten up my look.

Chopper is a coppery glitter that has a great creamy consistency. I have to be careful with this one, because it can look a little bad if I use too much, but if I just use it on the outer corner of my eyes, it can look great.

Tease is a matte light brown that also can be a little chalky, but is a great color to use in the crease, which I do almost every day.

Snakebite is a gorgeous, gorgeous shimmery dark brown color. It’s got a great consistency and great payoff and looks amazing as an all-over color or a outer v color.

Suspect is a really pretty shimmery light brownish beige color. It’s another one with a really creamy consistency and deposits great color, I use it as an all-over lid color almost every day.

Pistol is one of my absolute favorite colors in this palette. It’s a beautiful shimmery greige, has loads of pigmentation, looks amazing anywhere you put it, and a wonderful consistency. I love this color so much!

Verve is a beautiful shimmery oyster shell color. Again with the consistency and pigmentation being great. I love wearing this one as a highlight, as a inner corner color, and as an all over color. It’s amazing!

YDK is my absolute favorite color of this entire palette. It’s a shimmery burnished gold color, and just looks absolutely amazing in the pan and on a lid. It is creamy, pigmented, and just incredibly gorgeous.

Busted is a shimmery deep brown with a little purple in it. This color has pretty good payoff, and a nice consistency. I use it most days as an accent to the outer v.

Blackout is a matte black. It’s quite chalky and hard to get payoff on the lid, but I don’t mind too much. I’m not someone who uses black shadow a lot, so I can deal with it, but for someone who likes blacks, beware.

The brush it comes with is great. Both ends have soft bristles, the crease brush side is nice and fluffy and great for crease-work or for blending. The flat shader end is firm and good for packing on shadow. And neither hold on to more shadow than it deposits onto the lid.

The Naked Lip Junkie lip gloss is a nice pinkish color, however, it makes my lips feel dry after wearing it, plus I think it’s buried somewhere in the depths of my purse.

I also really like the packaging of this one. I can’t talk much about the first palette’s packaging, but the second one has a nice metal tin packaging, it feels very sturdy, I wouldn’t be afraid to take it on a trip in my suitcase. Although I might not take it on a plane, but that’s because I don’t trust turbulence. It clicks shut, and I carry it in my purse every day and it hasn’t busted open in there (although it just might now). I really like the feel of this one.

The whole palette, no flash

Whole palette, with flash

L-R: Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, Snakebite no flash

L-R: Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, Snakebite with flash

L-R Snakebite, Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted, Blackout without flash

L-R: Snakebite, Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted, Blackout with flash

All colors, no flash

All colors, with flash

L-R Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, Snakebite no flash

L-R Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, Snakebite with flash

L-R: Snakebite, Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted, Blackout no flash

L-R: Snakebite, Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted, Blackout with flash

Crease brush end

Flat shader brush end

All in all, I really love this palette. I use it every day. I tend to use Suspect on my entire lid, Tease in my crease, Snakebite in my outer corner, Busted in my outer v, Foxy on my brow, and Verve in my inner corner on most work days. It makes for a very neutral work look. On the weekends I play more and use all of the gorgeous colors.

You can buy this palette at Sephora and  Urban Decay’s website. Possibly other places, but those are the ones I know best. It’s not in stores yet, you can only buy it online, when it’s in stock. It costs $50.00 and I’d recommend getting on Urban Decay’s mailing list, as it’s out of stock a lot, and they email you when it’s back in stock. It may seem like a lot of money, but trust me, for what you’re getting it’s absolutely worth it. I don’t know if you would want both if you already have the Naked Palette, from what I hear these are mostly lighter, warmer colors than the first one. I can’t tell you if one is better than the other, but I can tell you that I think this one is absolutely fabulous! Way to go once again, Urban Decay!

Special thanks to my sister (tweetiegirlss) for letting me use her camera, taking some of the pictures, and letting me use her arm to swatch the shadows on.

Bloggers Do It Better – Sequins!

Bloggers Do It Better is an awesome blogger project created by Kristina at prettyshinysparkly.com. If you’ve never been to her website, go now and check out the Bloggers Do It Better section as well.

So it’s time for yet another Bloggers Do It Better post! This time, as it was assigned right before New Years Eve, it was fittingly a sequins challenge. Well, I spent my New Years Eve at my across-the-street-neighbor’s house, holding their precious little twinfants (little M and Q), so sequins really weren’t a part of my outfit for that night. And would you believe it, I don’t have many sequined things in my wardrobe. I have rhinestones, I have glitter, I have sparkles of all kinds, but not a lot of sequins. Mostly because I get all irritated when they fall off. But, I had an Express giftcard from my birthday in September that was still unused and a need of sequins, so I went and picked up a gorgeous sequined dress from their Holiday collection that was on sale, and rounded up a bunch of other sequined/sparkly stuff in my closet to go with it (and then crossed my fingers that the dress would arrive on time, which it did!) So here’s the pics! Forgive me if they’re not great quality, I freaking lost my camera and have absolutely no clue where it’s gotten to, so I had to use my iPhone.

Had to get in a makeup shot, it’s with the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette, after all! If you want a review of that, tell me in the comments.

Longtime PSS readers may recognize this necklace as the Crystal Bib Necklace from the NYDS featured on the site a few years ago. Saw it, loved it, had to have it and decided it worked with this dress.

Got the shoes at Filene’s Basement on their Black Friday sale/closing sale. I love them so much!

Dress: Express (similar), Shoes: Guess (similar), Necklace: New York Design Shop (similar, NYDS is gone! 😦 ), Bracelet: vintage, featured in this post, Purse: Target, Nail Polish: SpaRitual (Color Name Strength, from their 2011 Breast Cancer Awareness Collection).

Because I’m Bored

And maybe because I want to show off my new Coach bag, I’m gonna do that “What’s in the Purse” post.  Don’t worry, I refuse to jam this beautiful wonderful bag full of stuff, so this will be a shorter post than other purses I’ve used would have been.

This is my Coach Ashley Bag. However, I renamed her Sophie, because I just was not feeling the “Ashley” vibe. Yes, I’m aware that I may be a little weird, thanks. Normally I don’t buy these kinds of bags because I have these dang student loans that I seem to always have to pay. Two monthly. It’s kind of irritating. I just hope they know how many different bags and pairs of shoes I could be buying with the checks I send each month. However… I went on an overnight trip to Atlantic City with two of my friends, and we hit the outlets there as well as the boardwalk (I found Nucky, or rather a billboard for Boardwalk Empire with Nucky on it. But I sent a picture of it to my mom with the message “I found Nucky!”), and one of the ones we hit the hardest was the Coach Factory Outlet. And I guess being an Irish girl and it being St. Patrick’s Day that luck thing they always go on about must have really struck that day. Because this bag’s original price was $358. Something I could not pay if I wanted to. And then it was marked down as a Factory Store Bag. And then the doorman handed me a 30% off paper thing. I saw it, I held it, I looked at the pretty purple lining, felt the soft leather, and knew, it had to be mine. And I got it for waaaaaaaay less than its original price was! I walked out of the store feeling thrilled, elated, and not sick at all like I can if I make a bad impulse buy. The neutral color and the medium size mean I’ll be using this bag all the time. I haven’t picked up another bag since I bought this one. I take out the contents at night and re-stuff it with the paper that was in it to keep its shape, and store it in the paper and box it came it to protect it. I carry a bag inside it that I put the purse in should it be raining. I love the purse. And now for the normal contents of it part.

–MomAgenda MyAgenda. MomAgenda makes great agenda’s, except for that whole “I’m not a mom” thing I have going on. But they make the MyAgenda with most of the same features (minus the spaces for the stuff in a kid’s life that a mom might need to put down). And if I don’t write things I have to do down, it’s most likely I’ll forget I need to do them.

-Paycheck! Because today is payday and I have my envelope, yay!

–BIC 730R Black Ink Pen. My favorite pen, and I prefer to only use that kind.

-Purse Bag. In case the heavens decide to open up and give us rain. Sophie must be protected from water stains!

-Wallet. Generally empty of cash, since I’m always forgetting to hit the ATM.

-K Coin Purse. Had it since 2004 (freshman year of high school) when that whole stuff with your first name initial on it was really going strong.

-Clinique Makeup bag. If I don’t carry makeup with me, I’ll end up needing something by the end of the day, and will only have a lipgloss or something to work for everything. I’ve got my Urban Decay FaceCase, which has three eyeshadows, a blush, and three lipglosses and has been my savior many times, a small sample of my Lolita Lempika perfume, Too Faced Glamour Gloss in Pillow Talk (free mini sample), Urban Decay De-Slick in a Tube sample sized (once used this on top of a lip gloss I had to use to substitute for eyeshadow, boy was it sticky! the De-Slick helped with the sticky feeling), a small bottle of Benetint, tokidoki Lip Balm Stain in Pink Martini (my new favorite for summer, hair can’t get caught in stained lips like it can in glossed lips), Urban Decay Afterglow Glide-On Cheek Tint in Quickie (my new cheek favorite for summer, since it’s light-weight, and it leaves a pretty, light pink, kissed by the sun flush), Smith’s Rosebud Salve, also known as the Best Stuff Ever, Buxom Lipgloss in Katie (it’s my other perfect pink), Benefit Dr. Feel Good Mattifying Balm, and Too Faced Glamour to Go Fairy Edition Palette, which is like the FaceCase, shimmery, ethereal eyeshadows, a bronzer, a pretty pink blush, and a lipgloss. Yup, I carry a lot of makeup. All in small sizes though.

-Advil. Headaches suck. ‘Nough said.

–Oscar Blandi Powdered Dry Shampoo. Know what else sucks? Hair so thick that build-up happens. And grease. This takes care of that.

–Sephora Travel Hairbrush.

-Earbuds/headphones. Need something to keep me going while typing at work.

-Clean and Clear Oil Absorbing sheets. Because such is the life of a girl with combination oily skin.

-Keys. Yay! I can get into my house!

-ID Case

–Origins Peace of Mind Headache relief cream. Apply this to the temples and back of the neck and it’ll relieve some of the tension in the headaches I can get.

-Tide Pen, in case I spill or get ink or toner on me.

-Sunglasses. Cheap aviators I bought at Wal-Mart down in Chattanooga when I was stupid and sat on my sunglasses. I was going home the next day and didn’t want to drive through snow reflecting the sun with no eye protection.

-Sunglasses/reading glasses cleaning cloth. No smudges. Yay!

–L’Occitane She Butter Hand Cream. Mostly for the winter time, but I love this hand cream for keeping my hands soft all year.

-Revlon Nail File. Mom gave it to me years ago and it’s a good one still.

–Bath and Body Works Pocket Bac in Orange Sapphire. To keep the hands clean even after washing them. Public places can be kinda gross.

And that’s it. All of my stuff. So fun, huh?

Stay tuned! I’m working up a Colorblock post for that “Bloggers Do It Better” badge you see on the side of this page, from prettyshinysparkly. If you haven’t checked her out, please do, she’s awesome!

The Beauty Routine Post

So I’m doing this after the Pretty Shiny Sparkly post up a couple days ago: http://prettyshinysparkly.com/my-beauty-routine/. So here it all is.

Let’s start with what’s in the medicine cabinet… alllll my skin care items. My favorite products can’t be bought in America anymore, which sucks, because they work so well. I’ll give you a bit of backstory. In high school, I was in Drama, and we did mime. I swear the mime makeup was made out of Elmer’s glue and flour, with a splash of water thrown in. And it killed my skin. I graduated in 2007 and my skin has still not fully recovered. Bad pores, a couple scars, all that stuff. Mime makeup is evil. Enter Soap and Glory, which has saved my life. And now it’s left American shelves. And I await their triumphant return to the States. Here’s the medicine cabinet full shot. Then we’ll go shelf by shelf.

Top Shelf:

From Left to Right: My sister’s things (I share a bathroom with my 12-year old sister), L’Oreal Go360 Clean for Sensitive Skin Cream Wash. This is my morning wash. Mornings I need a simple, fast routine, because it’s already hectic enough. And the little scrublet thingy is great! Soap and Glory Scrub Your Nose In It, which I use on Tuesday and Friday nights. It clears out pores and has a fine grit scrub to it. I leave it on as a mask for three minutes and wash it off with a hot washcloth. Murad Oil Control something… I got as a sample from Sephora, but my sensitive skin rejected it… so I don’t remember the name. And then a Color Protectant Spray (I’m naturally dark, dirty blonde that I dye reddish golden brown) and volumizing spray and root boosters.

Second Shelf:

The main skin care shelf. From Left to Right: Soap and Glory Dr. Spot Treatment. Put this stuff on a zit popping up and it’s gone way before it would without it. Hurry back Soap and Glory! Nuetrogena Oil Free Eye Makeup Remover. I do serious eye makeup and need a way to get it off without raccoon eyes, this is it. Clinique Clarifying Lotion Number 3 for Combination Oily Skin. Gets the last bits of build-up off my face. Don’t look at the cotton pads after swiping this across the face! Clinique Face Soap for Oily Skin. Use this after the shower to wash, I love this and have for years. Soap and Glory Fab Pore Hot Cloth Cleanser. This is a creamy cleanser I apply on Wednesday and Saturday nights, leave on for a minute, and then wash off with the included muslin cloth. It shrinks the pores! Soap and Glory Fab Pore 15 Minute Mask. Okay, they advertise this as a facial peel, but it has more mask-like qualities. I put this on for 15 Minutes every Monday and Thursday night and after I take it off, my face is glowing and healthy. Soap and Glory! Benefit Dear John Facial Cream. Thick, rich moisturizing cream that is the only moisturizer I can use and not have a horrible reaction to. I’d hate to think what would happen if Benefit stopped making this. I use this every morning and every night. Origins Modern Friction Microdermabrasive scrub. I got a mini-facial at Origins for my birthday last year, and the girl used this on me… this was the first scrub I’ve found that didn’t cause a horrible reaction of red sore patches. It costs a lot, but it lasts forever. Use it every Sunday night. Rare Minerals Active Triple Treatment Eye Cream. I may be 21, but I don’t believe it’s too early to protect and prevent. This eye cream takes care of puffiness, fine lines, and some dark circles. Every morning and evening before my moisturizer… I also use it at the corners of my mouth, where there’s delicate skin too.

Third Shelf:

From Left To Right: The sister’s face scrub, oatmeal, a trick I used until I found a real scrub and passed on to her… it works for hyper sensitive skin, or peeling really bad sunburnt skin. Garnier Anti-Puff and Circle Eye Roller. This I use to help with my big under-eye circles. They don’t totally disappear, but they fade a lot. And Sister’s stuff.

So that’s the skincare part. Now for the other part… my love, the makeup!

The Base:

Left to Right: Benefit The Porefessional. Another product to shrink my pores… with all the products I use, you can only see the big ones on my face if you’re right up in my face. And if you’re right up in my face, you’d best introduce yourself or prepare to be slapped… personal space, please. Benefit That Gal Primer. A pretty pink primer that brightens up my tired face. And smooths and holds makeup well. Benefit Erase Paste in No. 1 Fair. Cover up the little bits of dark circles left after the skincare, as well as any breakouts I may have. Benefit Hello Flawless! in Never Settle Petal. A great powder foundation that seriously lasts all day. My mom wore this stuff while at a conference in Atlanta. At the end of a busy day of running around in a hot July Atlanta day, she had to go on tv, and the makeup artist didn’t need to do much of anything, her Hello Flawless! had stayed all day. That convinced me it was worth the $$. L’Oreal Bare Naturale Concealer in Light. Dust this on to catch any fallout eyeshadow and do a last cover-up.

Cheeks:

Left to Right: TheBalm Mary-Loumanizer Luminzer. This is a shimmery white-gold, I dust it on with a fan brush over my cheeks, no disco-ball effect from it with the light brush strokes! NARS Blush in Orgasm. I. Love. This. Blush. It’s lasted me forever, I wear it daily, and it gives me a pretty flush. So perfect.

The Eyes:

As much L t R as I can: TooFaced Shadow Insurance. My greasy eyelids would make the best shadows crease within a few hours, but with this they last all day and don’t crease. Kat Von D High Voltage Eye Primer in Smoky. I’ve discussed this before, but to give you a little more… It helps to keep shadows from creasing, keeps them intense and gives the eyes a smoldery look. It’s also got a great consistency. Stila Eye Shadow in Kitten. I use this shadow every day as my base color. It’s nice and smooth, and the pinky-gold color is great. Urban Decay Black Palette. Need I say more? Urban Decay 24/7 Eye Liner in Bourbon. I don’t wear black liner often, and this dark brown one with little gold glitter bits is perfect for me. Buxom Buxom Lash Mascara. I use this as a base mascara, lots of good volume, great dark black color. Benefit Bad Gal Lash Mascara. I use two coats of this after the Buxom Lash, it amps up my little lashes perfectly. Benefit Bad Gal Blue. I use the tiniest bit of this on the base of my lashes, it’s a bright blue and brightens up the whites of my eyes great. Sephora Atomic Volume Mascara. I use the tiniest bit of this on my lower lashes, for a little extra definition. Yes, I use FOUR (4) mascara’s… but I have tiny, sparse lashes… so I need them all. Benefit Eye Bright Pencil. Use this at the corner of my eyes… it’s a creamy pink and wakes the eyes up a little more. Benefit High Beam. I use this shimmery silver pink highlighter on my brow bones to give them an instant lift. I love makeup.

Brows:

TooFaced Brow Envy Kit. I overplucked my eyebrows too many times and was lucky to have them grow back almost fine… I use a brow shaping kit now every day, to keep them in good shape. It has wax, two powder shades (I only use the light one), three stencils, a brow pencil and spooly brush, mini-tweezers, and an angled brow brush.

 

Tools:

Ulta Lash & Brow Comb, Clinique Pencil Sharpener, Revlon Eyelash Curler, Sephora Mini Eyelash Curler (for the corner lashes), Revlon tweezers, and an old mascara applicator I use as a brow comb (I think it was CoverGirl)

And that’s all I do… almost every day. Yeah, I feel weird without a face on, unless I’m sick, and then I see no point to wearing makeup if all I’m doing is lying in bed sleeping and feeling icky. Sorry to have bored you, or shocked you.

And here’s a hint about the next makeup post I’ll do:

 

And I’ll have face shots for this one!

 

Please forgive the terrible quality of pictures… I couldn’t find my camera, so I had to resort to using my iPhone camera. And as much as I love my iPhone, the camera is not the best, and I have inferior photo-editing stuff. As in the stuff the computer came with.

Oh, and can you tell I love Benefit Cosmetics?

Urban Decay Black Palette

Little known fact about me… I’m a Sephora Addict. I can hardly ever leave that store without buying something… although I have done so on the rare occasion. And I love searching sephora.com too. A couple weeks ago, I saw this gorgeous palette from Urban Decay… and instantly knew that I had to have it. Lusted over it. Drooled over it. Dreamt about it at night. But waited. Since my birthday was coming up, just in case. And then two of my lovely friends gave me a Sephora gift card for my birthday. And I knew exactly what I was going to buy. The Urban Decay Black Palette. And now I’m going to share my joy with you in swatches and descriptions and pictures. Because I can.

The Urban Decay Black Palette is the antithesis of the Urban Decay Naked Palette. The Naked Palette is nice, but I’m really bored of wearing neutrals. I’ve been wearing browns and golds and bronzes and such for years on end. I needed a change. My big makeup traincase is full of neutrals. I want color. I want darks. I want jewel tones. Enter the Urban Decay Black Palette.

Urban Decay Palettes have been kind of big and clunky a lot of times. The Book(s) of Shadows are all big, but have gorgeous shadows, even if I don’t have any of them. This one, however, is small.

It’s about as wide as a finger. It’s nice and slim. There’s a mirror inside too. Please disregard my unpolished nails… I had to give them a break from polish for a week because they were flaky again.

There are six eyeshadows in this palette. They’re all black based shadows, and five of the six have a sparkly shift to them of one color or another. They’re all soft shadows. The colors are Black Dog, a matte black; Barracuda, black with a silver sparkly shift; Jet (my favorite), black with a purple sparkly shift; Sabbath, black with a blue sparkly shift; Cobra, black with a gold sparkly shift (GORGEOUS!); and Libertine, black with a green sparkly shift. There’s also a 24-7 Glide On Eye Pencil in Zero, their matte black. I use this eyeliner every day, just in Bourbon, brown with golden sparkle. It’s a fantastic eyeliner. We’ll talk about that later.

Black Dog, Barracuda, Jet, Sabbath, Cobra, Libertine (top to bottom; left to right)

The colors are gorgeous. Sparkly and rich color… buuuut they were a little lighter than I wanted when I swatched them. They needed something. Enter Kat Von D High Voltage Eye Primer in Smoky.

Another fantastic product. It’s an eye primer for when you want to do smoky eyes, the gray in the primer makes for a little extra smolder. We’ll talk more about that another time.

Black Dog, Barracuda, Jet, Sabbath, Cobra, and Libertine; top to bottom left to right; all with Kat Von D Smoky Eye Primer underneath.

Oooooooh… there we go. Perfect. The sparkles pick up even more. The colors are even more pigmented. Oh it’s absolutely perfect. Urban Decay how I love you and your Black Palette. You make my heart sing. Perfect dark, kind of rock n’ roll colors. I love you. I’ll have fun with these.

Urban Decay Black Palette costs $36 at http://www.sephora.com. This is an online only product, you won’t be able to buy it in stores, but it’s wonderful. Here’s the link: Black Palette. Oh, and here’s the Kat Von D High Voltage Eye Primer in Smoky, which I highly recommend for this palette: Smoky Primer,

I also got the Benefit Some Beauty to Love Kit. I’ll review that one later. It’s also really awesome.

Welcome to the world of a Sephora Addict.

Note: The Black Palette also comes with a mini Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Eden, however I didn’t include it since their primers don’t work on me… and I gave it to my little sister. I haven’t used Eden, so I wouldn’t be able to talk about it and all. My eye primers are the Kat Von D and Too Faced Shadow Insurance.