FOTD: Happy Valentine’s Day!

Dear all, happy Valentine’s Day! Whether you’re single or coupled up, I hope you’ve had a good day and everything will continue in the right direction. If you have any plans tonight, what are they? I’m posting a quick FOTD (doubling OOTD I guess) before heading out for dinner with Dr. D. We started planning WAY late, so I’m happy the Thai restaurant we wanted to go to still had a free table. But anyways, onto the FOTD!

I did the same look as this one. It one of my firsts and the pictures were really bad, but I really like the duo and think purple is a pretty romantic color, so I went with it. Also, I’m wearing one of the few items I own that are cooler in colors, so I thought the silver would coordinate better than for example gold. I used quite a bit more purple today, so it is smokier than the first go. However, it did take some patience to build the purple up. I had the feeling that every time I blended too much color disappeared, so I had to go back and add more! I used Tarte Peaceful on my cheeks, and Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Peach Parfait.

Just one more so you can see the amount of contour color there actually is:

I used Bdellium Tools 953 duet fiber foundation brush to create the perfect base with foundation, 934 precision concealer brush to conceal the undereye area and spots, and 965 duet fiber blusher brush to achieve very natural-looking flushed cheeks. My review for the 3 brushes are coming up soon, so stay tuned!

I am wearing one of my favorite Lavand dresses, so I thought I’d take a picture of myself from farther away to show you:

Don’t worry. It’s not SO freezing cold out there and I’ll be wrapped up with cardigan, scarf, coat, and boots, so I’ll be fine!

I have some exciting posts coming up, so keep your eyes peeled. Until then, I hope you’re having fun!

Lots of love,

Sunny xx

PS: Have you seen my Vote for Sunny post? I’m participating in the Bobbi Brown Pretty Powerful campaign in Belgium, and I would really appreciate it if you could vote for me! Voting is a little tricky because the page is in Dutch, but my talented bestie made a graph so everybody could follow the steps easily. Want to challenge yourself, learn some Dutch, and earn my eternal gratitude? Please check this out! Thanks a lot in advance!

Swatch, Review, & Comparison: L’Oreal HiP Metallic Shadow Duos in 106 Sculpted, 306 Gunmetal, 806 Gilded

After my good experience with L’Oreal Electrified, I felt the need to lay my greedy little hands on more of these HiP Metallic Shadow Duos. Since they are unavailable in Belgium (why, L’Oreal, why? Why can’t you love thy neighbor?), I turned to Makeupalley swap. I found this wishlist-only swapper who had something on her wishlist that I could part with, so I messaged her. It turned out that she actually put the wrong item on her wishlist, but decided to send the duos for me as a random act of kindness. I was such a sweet surprise that I didn’t know what to do with myself anymore!

Therefore, before I begin to show you the review and swatches, I have to say thank you, thank you, thank you to Sarah. According to her, her top three hobbies are makeup, knitting, and jewelry-making. She has two Etsy shops. One for knitting and spinning supplies, and the other for handmade jewelry. Now, I have poor hand-eye coordination and no patience, so knitting is really not my thing. However, I LOVE her jewelry especially because she pretty much only uses sterling silver. I have once bought something off Etsy because I find jewelry with bees and birds adorable. However, I couldn’t find anything that was made with sterling silver, so I had to compromise and get something that was not. I am very unfortunately allergic to anything that is not silver and gold, so I ended up wearing that pair of earrings only twice. Every time I tried, my ears would swell up painfully, and I couldn’t wear earrings for days afterwards. If you have the same problem, do check Sarah’s jewelry site out! I can feel that it is before long that I cave it to one piece or another!

Now, let’s move on to the most picture-heavy post of this blog so far, shall we? 😉

The lighter side of Sculpted (106) is a gorgeous shimmery plummy pink. I really like this color, and the texture/pigmentation perform pretty well. The dark side of this duo is a little tricky. It looks more purple/burgundy in pan, but from the swatch you can see it is almost black. It definitely leans warmer though, and the pink and purple glitter in it makes it more fun! I haven’t tested it out on my eyes so I can’t tell you for sure if there is fallout. However, I don’t have the impression that it is going to be the case from doing the swatches (or rather even if there is going to be fallout, it is not going to be dramatically bad). I do have to mention that this shade is slightly stiffer and the color pay-off is not as amazing as its lighter neighbor though. As this post goes on you will see this is consistent for all the HiP duos that I own. You can build it up rather easily, but it is a little more effort.

The closest colors I own to these two shades are Urban Decay Toasted and the left-column definer shade of Wet n’ Wild Comfort Zone, so I did a little comparison here:

As you can see, Toasted is FAR from the lighter shade, as it is not nearly as plummy. The definer shade of Comfort Zone is browner and warmer than the darker shade and less glittery.

Next on our list is 306 Gunmetal:

It is perhaps a little weird to name a green duo “Gunmetal (306),” but after swatching both shades, I can see that they have a grayish, smoked-out quality about them. The lighter side is a grayish olive green with a nice sheen. The darker side looks like an intense glittery forest green in pan. However, once swatched, the vibrancy of the green doesn’t transfer to skin. In my swatch picture you can see it is an extremely smoked-out green, though in person the glitter is much more impressive. Again, the texture is rather stiff, and it takes work to build it up. I know that the major complaint about this duo is that it looks very different in pan, and I have to agree with that. If you purchase the duo without having seen some swatches, you are likely to get something that is far from what you expected. With that said however, I personally like the colors (they’re green!) and I would like to see how they perform on lid!

I did a little comparison lining up all my greens next to the lighter shade (MAC Humid, MAC Sumptuous Olive, Urban Decay Mildew), and the right-column crease shade of Wet n’ Wild Comfort Zone next to the darker one:

I would say the lighter shade of Gunmetal is a blackened cross between Humid and Mildew. Next to the right-column crease shade of Comfort Zone, you can see the grayish greenish quality of the darker shade better. Also, the Wet n’ Wild shade is not nearly as sparkly.

Finally, I have saved the best for last with 806 Gilded!

The lighter side of this duo is a wow. It is a metallic true gold. Despite the fact that these duos bear the word “metallic” in their names, not many shades come out as metallic as this one. The texture buttery soft, and color pay-off more than amazing. If you put a little more pressure on your finger, the shade almost “melts.” Yup, that’s how buttery it is! For me personally, just this side makes the duo “worth it.” The darker side is a little less “deceptive” in this case. It is a grayish black with gold glitter, and it is what you get on your skin. Again, the texture is pretty stiff, and you have to work a bit for it to show up nicely. Something else that worries me a little is that I can already tell there will be some fallout. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that it isn’t too bad!

Again, I did a little comparison for you. I swatched Urban Decay Half Baked next to the lighter shade, and Urban Decay Creep next to the darker one.

Next to such a true gold like this, Half Baked looks surprisingly bronzy, almost orange! I love doing comparison swatches for you guys also because I learn so much from doing them. Half Baked is one of my all-time favorite eyeshadows, and I have used it so many times that I thought I knew it very well. Next to this shade however, I have seen a different side of it! Creep is considerably cooler than the darker shade of Gilded, and the sparkly bits almost don’t come out next to its much more glittery counterpart.

Finally, I did a happy family reunion shot of all of my metallic duos! From left to right: Electrified, Sculpted, Gunmetal, and Gilded. This is the first time I used flash, because we really haven’t had a lot of natural light here, and I kept getting blurry pictures! I did make sure the colors are accurate though.

Bottom line: Despite the fact that I wouldn’t rave about the HiP Metallic Duos as a 10/10 product, some of them are definitely worth looking into. My personal recommendations are Electrified and Gilded, because the lighter shades of both are true to the word “metallic” in their names. Sculpted is nice to have especially if you like plummy pink. I can see how Gunmetal wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but from playing around with it myself, I can say it is more phenomenal in person than a lot of the swatch pictures you can find online. It would be good for a more understated green-themed smokey eye, especially if you have something else from the green family to add some pop!

Phew, that is one very dense post! I will definitely do FOTDs soon with these duos, especially with the upcoming holiday celebrations. Please stay tuned if you want to see how they do on lid! Don’t be shy if you have any questions regarding these duos!

So what do you think? Would you be picking any of them up? Do you like metallic shadows in general?

Stay tuned and stick around, folks!

FOTD: This Autumn, I’m Loving L’Oreal HiP Duo in Electrified

Hello out there!

I reviewed the L’Oreal HiP Duo in Electrified a couple of days ago. Since I was going to the theater with my ex housemate T and his grandmother last night, I thought I’d incorporate it in my FOTD so that you can see how it actually works on me.

I largely followed the lovely tutorial by Jen. Looking back, I could have darkened my outer corners a bit more, but since I wasn’t going to wear false eyelashes to balance the eyeshadow out, maybe the level of intensity was just enough.

This is a breakdown of the products used for today:

Bobbi Brown Sable for eyebrows
Bobbi Brown Bone to highlight my browbones
L’Oreal HiP Duo in Electrified for eyes, with the lighter shade over my lids and darker shade “wrapping” around the outer corners
Wet ‘n’ Wild Comfort Zone, the Browbone shade on the left column to highlight my inner corners
Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Gel Eyeliner in Blackest Black
Urban Decay 24/7 in Zero on my lower lash line, smudged out with the darker color of the duo
Maybelline Volum’ Express The Falsies Waterproof Mascara in Very Black
Vichy Normaderm Drying Concealing Anti-Imperfection Stick (just to cover some spots)
MAC Cremeblend Blush in Tea Petal on cheeks
MAC Harmony for contouring below my cheekbones and jawline
Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Bronze on top of my cheekbones
Tarte Smooth Operator finishing powder lightly dusted over my face
Chanel Rouge Coco Mademoiselle on lips

(For the products I haven’t got around to reviewing, I will definitely do so at some point so stay tuned!)

Here are some pictures so you can see the eye makeup more closely (please ignore the spot on my forehead):

From an angle, you see slightly better how the dark shadow wraps around the lighter one.

This is how it looks with my eyes closed. Don’t be deceived by my eyeline though. I’m monolidded so it actually takes A LOT of gel liner on my outer corners for it to show. However, I do tend to go easy on the inner half of my eyes.

One little oppsie moment that happened yesterday was that I forgot to tap my brush before popping the shimmer brick on my cheekbones. Since Tea Petal is a cream blush, way too much shimmer stuck to the blush. I couldn’t blend it out with the brush, so I had to rub my fingers till some came off. The setting powder also helped reduce the intensity though, so it ended up looking OK. Lesson learnt: TAP YOUR BRUSH before it goes anywhere near your face!

Voila, that’s the FOTD for you. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Swatch & Review: L’Oreal HIP Metallic Shadow Duo in 510 Electrified

This is the first makeup item I purchased in the US. My travel buddy T described the noise I made when I saw this on display at CVS as such: “you let out such a high-pitched scream only a dog walking past by could hear you!” Ah, boys just don’t get the joy of our toys!

I put this on my shopping list principally because I saw this tutorial by Jen from From Head to Toe: From Head to Toe Fall Drugstore Makeup Tutorial She’s been my guru and basically my greatest inspirational figure in the makeup world since I got into it a little more than a year ago. We have similar skin tone and eye shape (though of course she’s 100 times more gorgeous than I am). I often check out the products she has because I know they’ll highly possibly work for me too.

Now onto the duo. The lighter side of Electrified is a shimmery, metallic taupe. It’s what I would describe as a cooler color. The texture and pigmentation are both on-the-spot with this one. On my eyes it looks almost like a silver foil. Definitely an intense and eye-catching color.

The darker side of Electrified is a red-based smokey plum. It looks pretty “purple” in the pan, but once swatched on skin it’s really a smoked-out plum with a brownish tinge to it. I’m a bit sorry to report that the pigmentation is slightly lacking with this one though. Whether on the back of my hand or on my lids, I’ve had to work a little more to build it up to the satisfactory intensity. The texture is also a bit stiff. It’s not a bad shadow by any means, since it is possible to build it up to desired intensity before I lose patience (and trust me, it’s rather limited). However, it is not on par with the best eyeshadows I own. With UDPP, both shadows do wear as well as high-end ones with no fallout.

I’m not the biggest fan of the packaging. If you open the lid you get the eyeshadows, but there is another compartment which hosts the useless little sponge applicator, which means it’s a lot bulkier than what it really should be. I personally don’t use sponge applicators and I don’t know if there are a lot of people out there who still do, but in my opinion it’s pretty unnecessary. With that said however, the packaging isn’t too flimsy, which sort of compensates for the clutter.

The bottom line? I would recommend this duo to people of various skin tones, just because there is a cooler side and a warmer one, and I see how people with different skin tones can make it work. I personally don’t own an awful lot of cooler eyeshadows just because I didn’t think I’d be able to pull them off, but this duo has proven that it is possible to make cooler eyeshadows work for warm-toned girls. The purple side is not of the best quality there ever is out there, but it’s definitely not a dud either. I paid about 8 dollars (before tax), but I just saw them on sale on the CVS website, so I’m sure you can make one your own for cheaper. Even with 4 dollars per shadow it’s a pretty good deal! So go ahead, give it a try, and maybe you’ll find your staple autumn/winter look with this duo!