Primer Comparisons: Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy vs. Too Faced Glitter Glue vs. Others

I got these in a few different types of lighting, though natural lighting really wasn't working out with my camera or phone (even PE looked not very sparkly). I may do these with glitter, but I thought it would be interesting to see it with this loose shadow. It's Fyrinnae's Pumpkinfire.

These are light swatches of each primer, though if you use PE thicker you can get even more glitter to stay, generally, and I assume that's the same with GG. The textural difference between the two is that PE goes on like a smooth gel and GG goes on like actual glue. The others being used are Nars, TFSI, and UDPP.

PE kept the most glitter on, followed by GG (though it doesn't always look so in the camera, I don't know why), then Nars, UDPP, and TFSI barely kept any on. I blew on these all a bit and let them sit on my arm for about 15 minutes before going downstairs and taking photos outside, in the parking garage, in the hallways, and then back in my apartment.

Fyrinnae Eyeshadow Look:

While putting this on, I once more forgot I was holding an open, loose shadow jar and spilled half of Jade Ghost over my bathroom. I was so annoyed, it's one of my favorites and this is the second time I did it. I'm going to have to get sifter jars *sigh* Anyway, since I did that, I thought I'd take pics of my look, since it was apparently worth half a jar of e/s.

For some reason my camera took much better pics through my glasses O.o so there's a little bit of reflection on some of them. And, as always, Fyrinnae shadows are super hard to photograph, these are bluer and more vibrant than shown here.

Jade Ghost in inner half or so, 1.22 Gigawatts on outer half of lid and as liner, Sleepy Hollow in crease and mixed down into Gigawatts.

Smashbox FAQ box, QVC TSV, first shipment swatches

QVC (the home shopping channel thing) has a few makeup brands that release special sets for them. In this case, Smashbox released a box that was supposed to answer frequently asked questions they ask. It had an auto-delivery option, which means it will be delivered three times, with a few color changes in the products. I got it because of the waterproof eyeshadow palette, which looked great in each of the three.

NARS Summer 2011 Swatches

I love this summer line, there are a few things that are clear misses, but most of them are huge hits. If you only had to get one thing, it should probably be Dogon, but Mayflower is also amazing, as is the artist palette with Orgasm, Albatross, and Laguna (the Orgasm is that more pink, more pigmented version that appears in some palettes).

From left to right: Dogon duo, New Order, Carthage, Wonder, Bolero.

Ulta Haul (and some mini-reviews)

I think my nailpolish obsession has meandered into a make-up-in-general obsession. Not necessarily a bad thing, considering all the job interviews I'm going to be doing.

So, I had bought the Kat Von D Beethoven palette from Sephora and decided it really was not worth the money (I think it's the purples that did it for me, the yellow and a few of the others were lovely, but when I see a purple and it has purple in its name, I expect it to be purple on skin, not navy or grey).

See that dark purple that looks lovely? That's "Rad Purple" aka "Navy".

I had been debating eventually buying the Urban Decay Naked palette and heard that they actually had one at Ulta to see (none to buy, of course) and ended up going all the way out there to check it out.

And bought a bunch of other makeup stuff, lol:  Cargo's Safari Kit, Too Faced's Brow Envy and Natural Eye Palette, Eos Lip Blam, and Smashbox HD Concealer.

Konad Attempt #4

I don't know what's up with all of my cameras, it's like they hate photographing nail polish. I guess it would help if I had any natural light in my apartment. Today I was planning on going outside to take photos, because I absolutely love my current look, but it's very overcast. I tried doing it out my single window, which isn't great since I have walls all over the place (oh, city living).

This was Zoya's Deidra (base) and Adina (stamp), using the swirly/feathery full-nail stamp on Konad m63 (I used the flowers from m57 for my thumbs). I thought it was really special, just subtle enough to wear to work, but still pretty and elaborate-looking.

Another issue seems to be that my camera takes the best picture of my nails while making my fingers look fat and wrinkly!

Right up against the window! Gives a somewhat accurate representation of the color

Nail Polish Collection

I know some people do swatches on request and I figure if I ever have people reading this I might as well offer the same.

These are all the polishes I have with me here in DC. I don't know which ones offhand I kept at my parents' house, alas. Well, I'm not including base coats.

If you want to see any of them, either just one or in comparison or with something over them, whatever, just leave a comment.

Zoya BOGO

Oh, so, I guess I should post this here, since I made this blog so as not to bombard my lj flist with nailpolish posts. Zoya had a BOGO Summer Sale, which practically everyone that knows Zoya knows about so far. I decided to take the opportunity of $2 expedited shipping to get the few Summer colors I actually liked and some other colors I've been lusting for.

First of all I got the Mod Mattes mini sampler

Konad and Crackle

I've been trying out more konad plates as well as both OPI's Black Shatter and China Glaze's white Crackle polishes.  Here's some pics and opinions:

Here's my third go with Konad. This is two coats of Zoya's Trixie with Zoya's Reece as the stamp, using two patterns from m60. Zoya's Armor for topcoat.

Trying out Konad

So, I decided to buy a Konad stamper and a few plates.  I've tried out a few designs just for testing, one of them turned out good enough to wear, lol.  Please excuse my horrible cuticles.

Both are made with Konad m65, which I knew I'd love when I was ordering it and I'm glad it looks so good IRL.

I wore this one this weekend:



The base color is Glacier Bay Blues by OPI, it's a sorta dark aquamarine.  The stamp was done I think in Revlon Silver Screen, though may have been Sephora by OPI's Social Climber (I own a lot of silvers).

I also really like this one, though I was really sloppy with the base and then bumped my nails into a few things and basically messed it all up (and took a pic before cleaning up the excess polish).  But I think I could probably get away with this at work:




The base was two coats of Deidra by Zoya (a wonderful conservative work color) and Gold Digger's Delight by OPI, which is pretty ancient.  As you can see, my camera just did not want to get the details on this one, alas.