Color Spotlight: Blue (pt 1)

Hello! Welcome to the next episode of the "Color Spotlight" series. Blue is one of my favourite colors (along with acid green, bugundy and more), and there are so many shades of it, that I decided to divide the post in 2 parts. The second one will focus more on teal and light blue, while I'll keep this for the most "traditional" shades of blue. I also have a new blue polish to show you, but I'm keeping that for tomorrow... for now, enjoy my 5 favorites.
Kiko 435 was part of the Dark Heroine LE, a blue with strong violet hues (practically a duochrome) absolutely fit for a dark lady. A bit of a wintery polish, but that doesn't make it less awesome.
In its simplicity, Kiko 294 is a wonderful, warm toned blue. I call it Egyptian blue, and it's a wonderful shade. Bit reminiscent of ceramic decorations and jewels. I prefer it with nail art rather than alone.
Kiko Quick Dry 830 was a pleasing surprise, since it's a very pretty metallic blue that looks stunning under the lights. I have nicknamed it superhero blue, because it's a great color for a supersuit!
Kiko 440 from the Digital Emotion LE is a glittery party of awesomeness. Annoying to remove, as every glittery polish, yes, but so pretty I am willing to forgive that.
Pupa 054 really creates on the nails the gel/glass effect it promises. Smells awfully in the bottle, is simple yet classy on the hands.

And now, some blue eye make up. I wear blue eyeliner way more than black eyeliner, so I will be eternally thankful to Concrete Minerals for making the holy grail of blue eyeliner/eyeshadows.
Bulletproof by CM is seriously the best. Irl is a bit darker. Once it sets on the eyelids it stays all day (will stain a little bit, but oily makeup remover does the trick).
The two Kiko eyeliners, 106 and 107, are actually quite different, 106 is glittery and 107 is darker and matte. Unsurprisingly, I like 107 more, but 106 isn't that bad either, even if it seems less pigmented.
And a blue mascara, obviously, shown here is Kiko 07. Beautiful and pigmented, no complaints.
The UD eye pencil in LSD is a personal fave, because it really lasts and lasts and lasts. A dark blue with light blue microglitter, it would look stunning with every eye color.
The Sephora eye pencil in Azur Blue deserves a mention because, before CM's Bulletproof, it was my go-to eye pencil. It still has a place in my heart because it's small, easy to carry and lasts long. The color is less intense than Bulletproof though.




And that's all for the first part! Second part coming soon! Comments and opinions are always appreciated.

Color spotlight: green

So, I know I have neglected this blog for a while (university, urgh), but now I have the first of what I hope will be a nice series of posts. I will focus on my favorite shades of green when it comes to makeup and nail polish. For nail polish, you can see Deborah Green Fluo 45 that I've been wearing lately. 

I tried to select my 5 favorite green polishes. Not easy!

Besides the Deborah one, I picked Kiko 441 Electron Green, Essence L.O.L, OPI Don't Talk Bach To Me and Essence Choose Me!

Green Fluo 45 is a nice neon green, that like all neons requires a white base. Topped with a shiny top coat it's really nice. Electron Green is a personal fave, annoying to remove for the glitter, but very pretty. I have a thing for lime green, so L.O.L. and Don't Talk Bach To Me (which leans more to pistachio, actually, but whatevs). Choose Me! is a wonderful dragon green (can I define it like that? ), packed with shimmer and awesomeness that got discontinued for no good reason, if you ask me. Essence, seriously, why?

When it comes to make up, I can show you two brushes, one by Neve Cosmetics and the other one by Essence, both definitely good (the Essence one was surprisingly good), a waterproof eye pencil by Sephora that shows how clearly Sephora and me have different ideas of what waterproof means. It's not much resistant and it gets in my crease pretty quickly, it's a pity because it's a wonderful shimmery olive green.
UD eye pencil in Invasion needs no explanations, I believe.. a wonderful matte dark forest green.
For the eyeshadows, there's Concrete Minerals Toxic. I wish it were more on the limey side rather than a pastel green, but I honestly don't care because, like its blue brother, it's greatly pigmented and the quality is amazing.
I included the whole Neve Cosmetics Duochrome palette because all its greens are wonderful. All of them.

What do you think of this series of posts? Any idea for improvement and/or color you really want to see next?

Dramatag: my top 5 showcase products

As soon as I saw the last Dramatag I wondered "Do I have any product with super awesome packaging?"

The answer was yes!
I love, love the Naked Basics packaging. It's simple, yes, but I love how it feels at the touch, it's almost soft and smooth, and you can feel the embossed name with your fingers.
An old Kiko blush from the Fierce Spirit LE (Last summer's), with already a small scratch. Still, the "oriental" mood of the packaging is quite pretty and it looks nice on my makeup shelf. It's not much travel-friendly and it's huge, but I'm not going to complain on the size since it's my favourite blush, I don't want to think that one day I'll hit the pan.. sigh.
The Neve Cosmetics blush in Starlet from the 20's inspired LE was one of the products that, well, let's just say the packaging had quite a part on the purchase- that, and the fact that I didn't have a matte blush yet. I ended up with a very lovely blush, that can be easily blended and so it looks nice even on my skin tone.
The Essence highlighting pearls from the Me & My Ice Cream LE aren't so practical in their daily use, but their box is so lovely you'd expect to find candy in it!
The Kiko Loud Night Bronzer from the Dark Heroine LE has one of the most awesome packagings ever. The image on the cover reflects the Blade Runner atmosphere of the whole LE in the best way possible, and somehow the name Loud Night really fits. The cover makes me think of city lights seen when driving a car or running, due to their flashiness, but they could be the lights of a night club as well. See, when a product makes me think of stories, it's a good one. Ah, and it's a pretty great bronzer too!

Christmas beauty-related gifts

Hello! Are you enjoying the holidays? I hope so!
I wanted to show you three beauty products I received this year, who are also my first UD products, not counting the nail polishes.
Do they really need an introduction?

The Naked Basics was on my wishlist for many reasons: it's small, travel friendly and contains beautiful nude matte shades. Small nude palettes are very popular now, but they aren't matte...
I've tried it on Christmas day, and it's just great. The colors are very pigmented (Faint is my new fave brown) and Walk of Shame is a "my lid but better".  I know Venus is a frost/subtle shimmery color, but It's perfect for highlighting needs, so I'm not gonna complain. I can't wait to learn many combinations and makeups with this.

The UD 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencils are my  new favourite pencils ever. Unsurprising, I know.
Once, I was at Sephora and tried some of them. I fell in love with Uzi, a wonderful gunmetal (with a very appropriate name too). They're soft and allow me to do precise, smooth lines as eyeliner. Uzi might seem too glittery, but it's just metallic and it's a perfect day shade. It has cold undertones and it's just fantastic.
The other one is Invasion, a dark forest green, matte and with cold/blue undertones. It's hard to express how I feel finally owning it, not only because I've desired it for months, but because of the story behind it.
Once I was looking at some online swatches of the UD pencils (I think it was on Sparkage's blog) and was struck by certain color combinations and their names. The matte grey of Desperation, the blue-green of Invasion, the weapon-like grey of Uzi... I fell in love with the color scheme, and started writing a story based on it (inspired by the names too). I haven't finished it yet, but the placeholder title for it is Invasion...
(I plan on connecting that shade to one of my character's outfit).
I feel as if simply staring at it and owning it will help me writing my story.

I hope this doesn't sound too weird... for now, happy holidays! And don't forget to tell me f you received some beauty products for Christmas..

Back from Lucca Comics & Urban Decay Creep Nail Polish

Man, Lucca Comics was awesome as always. Of course it was very tiresome, after all it's made of days of standing in queues, walking around the town to look at stuff and people, visiting exhibitions, you know, stuff.
This is what I got (I also got a Hand of the King pin from Game of Thrones, but it's already on my jacket)

The first issue of Saga went sold out really quickly!  The Elric book was a really pleasant discovery, there are many comics derived from the saga of Elric of Melniboné, but this one is definitely the best. And how could I say no to having my own copy of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? The Art School Confidential pages you see are the text I chose to translate at the Translation Slam.

And now, back to nail polish!

Continuing my days of swatches, here's Creep from the UD Naked nail polish set. As the other ones, it has a very thin and sheer formula, not so easy to apply due to the glitter. Here shown are three coats of Creep.
It seems even more sheer than its fellows, but I bet it looks great with a topcoat to make it even shinier.
Honestly I am not much of a fan of this set, I'd expect better polishes from them. I have to admit that drying time was very good, despite 3 coats.

Urban Decay Hustle nail polish

Sorry for the lack of posts! I've had some really full and tiresome days. At the end of the day I might not be too tired to apply polish, but I wouldn't give it enough time to dry.
Anyway, here's Urban Decay Hustle polish from the Naked set.
The color is a metallic brown/purple that doesn't require a topcoat to shine. Application was easy and drying time was good, shown here are three thin coats. The color really makes me think more of an eyeshadow than of a polish, and I don't even own a UD palette. It is similar to Concrete Minerals' Smut, but darker.
I thought some blue would have gone nicely with it, since light blue/brown is a color combination I love. The light blue is kiko 624. It's also amazing to hide tipwear.

Urban Decay Smog nail polish & Essence new products haul

No, I don't have the whole Naked Nail Set... my sister does, but she didn't like this one, so she gave it to me.
A shimmery brown/bronze, very warm. It's almost a duochrome, under the light it shifts from brown to bronze to dark purple. I love this color, but it's not much pigmented, after three coats it still didn't offer the coverage I'd ask for. I think it would be better as a layering polish, since it did just a couple of days without topcoat before chipping. Certainly not a groundbreaking polish, and it would've been great if it had offered the same apocalyptic-proof resistance of, say, the UD pencils.

And now, to the Essence haul!

I have studied the Essence website when the new products were presented, and there were a couple of things I found worth trying. So when the Essence display was updated at Coin, well, I took the chance to test them:
Eye Sorbet in illuminating coconut: I had great hopes for this, but it's a bit too glittery and less whitey than I'd expect. It could make a good cream eyeshadow, but not an highlighter, unless you are going for a Twilight vampire look. I will post swatches as soon as I get back home.
Lashes Go Wild mascara: I can't wait to try this, the wand reminds me of Neve Cosmetics' mascara.
Glow In The Night topcoat:  This is going to be fun.
Sparkly Sand Effect in Hey, Nude! : I'm trying this right now! I've chosen it because it reminded me of an OPI polish. I'll post a review real soon!