Neve Cosmetics Mistero Barocco eyeshadow palette

I have ten minutes to spare (I am a busy woman) and I miss regularly updating this blog. So here's a review of NC's Mistero Barocco eyeshadow palette. NC is seriously becoming my favourite brand.

This palette is no longer available on their website, but single eyeshadows are, and you could still find it in brick&mortar stores or other retailers.
The packaging is pretty awesome, white with the golden symbol, it's definitely going to rank high you your list of awesome packaging cosmetics.
It's not much different than a smaller regular palette (like the Duochrome, the Scurissimi and so on), it's in plastic and holds four shades: Crinoline (warm shimmery gold) Ember (pure matte red), Obscure (dark brown, matte with some really subtle shimmer) and Ornament (shimmery antique pink). No primer here, just swatched on bare skin.

Crinoline is very pretty, it's not just a warm gold, to me it has hints of orange and it's extremely beautiful. Highlight the inner corner of your eyes with this, or just use it as a regular eyeshadow. I know many gold eyeshadows but this one really is different.
Ember is a pure, simple matte red with cold/neutral undertones. I have used this as eyeshadow, eyeliner and blush. As blush I recommend caution because it's extremely pigmented. It doesn't look too much Heid-ish once you learn how to apply it.
Ornament is a personal favourite. Like, if you can only get one of these please get Ornament! It's not only a ridiculously beautiful eyeshadow (if you do neutrals this is your new best friend) but it's also a great blush! I used it more as a blush I believe, and it really looks wonderfully ... natural on me, the shimmer doesn't highlight the imperfections of my skin and it's extremely long lasting.
Obscure is a pretty beautiful brown, not that unique but still good and useful, you could use it in your brows as well if they're dark enough. NC suggested you to use it as bronzer as well, but it depends heavily on your skin color. On mine it would be way too dark, and would need a lot of work and blending. You can still use it as eyeshadow or eyeliner, the color is very pretty after all.

The pigmentation varies a bit, Obscure is much more buildable than the others, but that's a good thing in my eyes.
So, any of you got this or plan on getting it? Personally I am quite in love with it, it's extremely multitasking (you can do eyes, brows, face...)!

Christmas nail art and gifts

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you had a nice day (whether you celebrate it or not)
I always love looking at what other people received so I'm showing off my gifts, because why not.
The bag is kinda like the Freitag bags, this one is made with old ads and recycled seat belts. All recycled! I really wanted something in that style so I'm really happy!
And the beauty case is a nice addition too, it's very big.

Aaand a close up of the Sugarpill makeup I received! I've been wanting this palette for so long! And finally a good matte yellow eyeshadow!

Aren't those the prettiest colors you've ever seen?! Look at that palette, seriously! It's all my favorite colors combined in one palette, I can't wait to try this!

And my Christmas nail art. I didn't want to use red, so I used Essence Colour 3 Midnight Date and Catrice Bronze Deco for a simple star-inspired nail art. Not a typical Christmas nail art but I really like it.

Perfect Palette Tag

It took me an insane amount of reflection time to write this, because, to my shocking discovery, I don't even own that many palettes. And videogames are a distraction too, but let's ignore this and focus on the palettes, shall we?

1) Best Packaging
This is genuinely a hard question. I don't have palettes with pretty but practical packaging, so I really don't know how to answer this. Probably the Sleek ones would win on this, since they have room for a brush and a mirror too, despite being small.


2) Best Color Payoff

Neve Cosmetics Duochrome palette. One of the best palettes I've ever tried, the pigmentation of these shades is insanely high.


3) Most Versatile

I was tempted to answer "the Duochrome again!", because, really, you can create dozens of looks with that. However I've chosen this old Kiko palette, Sensuous Burgundy. Ok, it's not that old. The colors are greatly pigmented, especially the brown, and choosing to use, say, the pink instead of the gold on the lid will change you eye look greatly.

4) Best for Traveling

Look at me shamelessly recycling an old pic

Ok, this should be called "best for travelling in summer and spring", due to the colors. Last summer I've been away for a week carrying only a limited amount of makeup, and this was the only palette I had with me. It's not only great because it has a sturdy packaging and offer lots of shades in a small space, but you can create many different looks with this (even some evening looks).

5) Biggest Regret

This little lovely Catrice palette from the Thrilling Me Softly LE was a total regret. Surely, the shades are nice and go very well together. That is, they would if they were pigmented. The matte brown isn't pigmented at all and a wet brush didn't help. The two shimmery shades cause lots of fallout. Catrice, you're disappointing me!


6) Best Color Names

Ehm, the Duochrome by Neve. Again. Anyone who creates a wonderful green/yellow eyeshadow and calls it Acid Rain wins.

7) Least Used

This greatly pigmented, long lasting eyeshadow palette by Pupa would be great, if it weren't for the typical, evening "social life" colors. I don't have a social life that involves partying, night clubs and such, so I can't use it as much as I would. I used it last year in Lucca Comics and it proved itself to be insanely long lasting, my eye makeup was still perfect even when I came back in the evening and gave me that "yeah I might be exhausted but I still look fabulous" feeling.


8) Most Used, Most Loved (aka the one to bring on a desert island)

This little gem is an E.L.F. mini palette called Luxe, paid less than 2 euros and it contains the only eyeshadow where I've actually hit the pan. The highlighter shade is a perfect My Lid But Better, and combined with the brown and the taupe it creates a gorgeous, shimmery-but-not-too-shimmery daily friendly nude-ish look. The dark taupe is an unique shade of which I've never found dupes, if you look at it very closely it has small warm and green hues. Hard to describe, wonderful to use, recommended if you place an E.L.F. order.

Kiko Infinity Eyeshadow Clics System Swatches

I went to a Kiko store and tried some of the new Infinity Eyeshadows for the Clics System.
I mostly tried a few mattes and a couple of the glittery ones (and in order not to forget the numbers, I wrote them with a kajal tester.. excuse the horrible writing, I wrote with my left hand and I'm righthanded...). The colors are much more pigmented irl.

So, from the left:
207 Papaya Orange: a matte orange with cold undertones, colder than Neve Cosmetic's Magma, but still pretty. Almost blood-like.
262 Green & 263 Forest Green: You can see the 263 barely because I swatched it just to compare it with 262, a much warmer green. 263 is identical to 109 of the standard line.
275 Electric Blue: A nice matte blue, way more electric and pigmented irl. Not as strong as I'd love.
273 Sky Blue: Literally the color of the sky, very nice.

408 Light blue: A peacock blue, I swatched it because it was almost a duochrome.
403 Pink: a duochrome with cold, violet/light blue hues. 
This line of special glittery eyeshadow is so much better irl! If you can, go and give a look at them! Unfortunately I think they will have a great fallout, you'd need to wear them wet.

Overall they are nicely pigmented and the quality seems good. The color assortments is very pretty to see in the stores, the website doesn't do justice to it. I like the fact that they included a lot of matte colors, but
the prices seem a bit high if you count that they're not lipsafe. The prices are similar to Neve Cosmetics single eyeshadows, but the Neve ones are at least lipsafe. The empty palettes seem quite useful.