Getting Wild with makeup and nails with the Wet 'n Wild Fall LE Collection

Hello, Fireflies!

When the new LE Fall Wet 'n Wild collection came out, and people started posting comparisons to the UD Naked 3 palette, I knew I wanted to try them.  Don't get me wrong, I have the original Naked palette, and it's a great palette.  But I wanted to see if these rose-toned neutrals were worth another $50, or if I'd be okay with the two $4 Wet 'n Wild palettes.

I actually really like these palettes! Wet 'n Wild definitely has both hits and misses with their eye shadows, but I think these are a hit.  Here's a closer look at the eye look I did with the Wet 'n Wild Melrose at Night palette.

I am always up for a dark berry lip, and I love the new matte Bordeaux Boulevard.  I am also a sucker for the rubbery black packaging on these LE lippies, too, but the formula was fantastic. 

Um...I know I used a foundation, but it didn't seem to make it into the picture.  I've been using powder foundation this summer, for the most part, so it's either Ageless Derma Pressed Mineral Foundation, or the It Cosmetics one.  Also, I used mascara.  Was I drunk when I put this together?  Where's the mascara?

I'm hard pressed to use anything other than my Cover FX stable of primers, though.  I haven't found a foundation they won't work with, and I love that they are skincare as well as makeup.  The blemish primer is proving especially useful these days, and because the eye primer is also a treatment, I put it over my lid and under my eye, as well.

I finally gave away that Physician's Formula brow definer.  The design just bummed me out.  I hated having to replace the cap whenever I wanted to switch to the brush.  I'm much happier with my Too Faced Bulletproof Brows.

The blush, Maybelline Mineral Power in Fresh Plum, is one I've had for a while, and thought it complimented the eyeshadows well. 

I have tried the UD setting spray, this mist from Pur, and the ELF setting spray.  I like them all, but the Urban Decay sprayer beats them all, hands down.  The Pur spraying mechanism just douses me, which wastes product and is annoying because I can't put my glasses back on until my face is dry.  So, for now, I'm back to using the UD spray full-time, and I'll refill the bottle with something else when its done.

I also did a nail look to go with the outfit I'm wearing.  I started with Echo Dark from this same LE collection.  It's a dark navy jelly matte.  What? yeah.

I did random brushstrokes with Revlon Spirit and another color from this LE collection, Careful, it's Vine-tage. a matte grape.

To better match the pattern on the shirt, I used Mentality Eeny and Pueen 13 plate to stamp this floral pattern.

And, here's the final result!

The whole look, sorta:

Have you picked up anything from this collection?  What do you think?

Sunday Stamping - Inspired by Water

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's stamping is inspired by water.  I did a very subtle stamp over a very blurry base.

I started with Lacquer Lust Sapphire, a gorgeous deep blue from Lacquer Lust's Birthstone collex.  Love!

I then took Lacquer Lust Cotton Candy Clouds and Emerald and dabbed them over Sapphire.

Twice.  With a little Sapphire dabbed in there again for good measure.  I was going for a murky green-blue oceanic vibe.

I used Ga-De Green Sapphire and Pueen 03 to stamp a rippled look over it all.

The metallic green makes a very subtle stamp over all the holo.  I love the way it is reminiscent of waves, though.

Do you ever do subtle stamping that just imparts a 'feel' to the mani, rather than a distinct stamp? 

Kinda Sorta Holo-glam

When word came out that China Glaze was putting out another holographic collection, there was a collective orgasm from the nail polish community.  There was speculation about the awesomeness. Would it be as collectable as their first holographic collection?

And then, the swatches started coming, and the 'whomp-whomp' could be heard around the interwebs.

It's not that holo.  It's actually more of a metallic finish with holo texture.  There are some pretty colors in the collex, but the holo just isn't that impressive.  I did want to do another abstract brushstroke mani, a la Gorgeois, and I thought these polishes would look great... and I think they did.

I love that this technique is easy enough to do on both hands.

Here are the swatches of the polishes I used:

Don't Be a Luna-tic.  Icy blue.  As with most holos, you have to work fast, or you'll get balding or patchiness.  I messed up my middle finger when I went too slowly.

Sci-Fly By.  A slightly darker blue.  Still much more metallic than holo.

Strap On Your Moonboots.  One of my absolute faves from this collex, and it is actually holo.  Not blindingly so, but you can definitely see it.

OMG a UFO.  Olive green, slight holo.  Really wish it had more holo because it's a pretty cool color.

It's too bad that China Glaze released this as a holographic collex.  It might have gone over better as a metallic one and people would have been pleasantly surprised at the subtle holo.  After their first success with holos, it's hard to understand what happened here.

Do you like this collection for what it is?  Or mourn what it was supposed to be?

Sunday Stamping - Earth Day

This week's stamping challenge is:  Earth Day.

I had a vision of a field of wildflowers for this stamped mani.. but like a lot of my visions, they are executed quite differently in the Real World than they are in my head.  I'm going to show you two attempts at making my vision a reality.  The first is a hot mess.  The second comes closer.

One thing I really liked about my first attempt is the base color.  This is Enchanted Polish Britney Spearmint.  I never thought I'd be able to get this polish, and I wasn't sure if I'd even like it.  It isn't the most holo, but it has a nice iridescent sheen.  If you like Illamasqua Hemlock, you might like this one, too.

I had just gotten some new plates from Pueen, so of course I wanted to try them out.  I used that flower stamp there.. what?  You can't tell?  Surely, you must be blind...

Yeah, okay.  I tried a technique where you mix several colors on the plate (in this case, Kleancolor Metallic Mango (metallic orange), China Glaze Adore (metallic ocean blue), and Sinful Colors Gone Platinum (metallic purple) and I double stamped with some white mixed in, to see if I could get the colors to show up better.

Hubby tried to make me feel better by saying that it kinda looked like granite.. and that's in the Earth, so it fits the theme, right?

Take 2.  This is an abstract brushstroke mani a la Gorgeois that I did with the Different Dimensions 80's Baby neon holo collex.  I started with a basecoat of white, and then dabbed on 2 layers of all the different colors.  Like, gag me with a spoon!

I used three different stamps from Pueen plate 25 to give different flower patterns.  Hubby said one looked like snowflakes, but I was going for flowers.  FLOWERS.

I think this one was much more successful, though I would have liked the flower stamp to be more of an outline to let the color show through more.  Still, it's a cheerful, colorful mani that made me happy.

Happy Earth Day!  Reduce, reuse, recycle, and take care of our planet.

If you'd like more information on Enchanted Polish, you can find her on Facebook and her shop.  If you'd like more information about Different Dimension, you can also find her on Facebook, and her Etsy shop.