Heavenly Natural Beauty Haul

Ahhh! My Heavenly Natural Beauty Haul arrived! Yay! Luckily I swatched and took pictures of them this afternoon, when the lighting was fairly decent. I got a total of 12 colors, for about $60 total (free shipping). I forgot when I ordered, but I think it took only three days or so to come. The area was pretty close, they ship from New Mexico, and I live in California, so no wonder! And now, with no further ado here are the swatches and pictures (FYI all swatches are without a base).

I didn’t label them because I put them basically in the same order in all three pictures, so you can see for yourself. I really like these. There was a little bit of fall out when I swatched these, but it’s a given with mineral make up, not to mention that the area I swatched then (underside of arm) is dry and doesn’t have as much oil as say, your eye lid, and thus the mineral pigments had nothing to stick too. The colors are vibrant, but a few don’t look as they did on the site. I am a little disappointed with the “Emo” pigment/liner (Props with the funny name though); I really wanted a matte black loose shadow! However it isn’t very pigmented, more charcoal than black. It’s still a nice color, though. Oh, and as I mentioned in the previous post, there is a duochrome in the bunch; “Earth Child” is a pretty taupe/tan brown with a gorgeous green duochrome shimmer! Of all the colors, Emo, Hypnotic, Deep Ocean, Nymph, and Rare Beauty were matte, the rest ranged from light shimmer to very shimmery. And I am very, incredibly pleased with Diva, can’t wait to use it in a look! It’s incredibly pigmented; I barely used any shadow at all with the swatches, and they turned out pretty vibrant. The price is amazing as well, so I would check them out if I were you!

Duochrome Madness

Hello. My name is Denise. And I'm addicted to Duo-Chromes. I don't know what about them makes them so appealing. So versatile, gorgeous... I suppose it's my obsession with color. I like to squeeze it anywhere possible. So the idea of squeezing two (possibly three; I do in fact own Trio-Chrome eye shadow and nail polishes!) colors into one? AMAZING. Plus, putting them over different bases (specifically dark bases like black) really transforms them. I love them, period. So today's post will be me talking about duo-chromes (And, here's a little tidbit; chrome is not named after the finish chrome, like the metal finish, but short for chromatic; color. And duo is obvious; two. So it means two color, basically. And thus a Trio, or Tri Chrome would be a three color e/s or nailpolish!).

First, nails. I neglect my nails, and my hands are gross. I still bite my nails, but it's even worse than most people, mainly because I don't limit the biting to only my nails; it's also to the skin around my nails. As a result my hands are often dry and gross, and I'm embarrassed of them. However, my love of color overpowers my shame so, it results in my nails being painted prettily. I haven't painted my nails in a long time, so I was wondering what to use. I have a whole collection of duochrome and trichrome nail polishes, because they were only $1.00 at Rhinomart. They're all by Rimmel, and the picture does them no justice:

Out of all my nail polishes, these four, hands down, are my favorite (and maybe Purple Passion from Milani, but it's too sheer!). The picture does them no justice, so I'll describe them in greater detail;

Pulsating: A hot fuschia with violet duochrome. When put over a black base (as I did) the violet stands out more; it reminds me of "Stars and Rockets" MAC e/s or Cosmic Violet from Ben Nye or Fishnet from Urban Decay in nailpolish form, except way more intense.

Fusion: A silver/blue/lavender TRI chrome. I haven't tried it over a black base, but I assume the blue and violet stand out more. Gorgeous.

Radical: Probably the most "subtle" of the trichromes. It's the most strangest, gorgeous, interesting color ever. I don't wear it over a black base because it's amazing on it's own. It has tan, gold, and violet in it! Looks different in different lighting. I think this one is probably my all time favorite.

Mania: Probably the most vibrant of the bunch. It's reminds me of the sea; it's a really intense cobalt blue with sea green and lime green and gold flecks. Also a Tri-Chrome. Over a black base, it looks like a blackened green with lime/gold shimmer.

I'm not sure if these colors are discontinued, but if they aren't, pick them up! They're amazing.

Anyways, the nail's I'm wearing now are "Pulsating" over a black base. Picture here:

See? Nasty hands. Haha.

Anyways, now onto lips. I just purchased a Smashbox gloss duochrome, but I already have pictures, and I only have a few. The only other one I have (and can think of at the moment) is "Queen of Africa" from NYX. It's a not-so obvious duochrome, it's kind of like a violet-orchid color. I don't really like purple on my lips, so I pair it with this pale pink lipstick from Avon called Pink Fantasie. Alone, I don't like these two products, but together they're amazing! And for an added duochrome effect, I add some Vellum e/s from MAC over it. I seriously love putting Vellum over my lipglosses; it makes them so pretty, not to mention tones down the glossiness, which sometimes I appreciate (because I don't want to look like I drooled all over myself). Pics here:

And I wasn't going to add this, but, eye shadow. I own only four duochromes, Vellum e/s from MAC and Label Whore e/s from Too Faced, and my two favorite from Physician's formula, both DISCONTINUED. They even had a duochrome liquid liner, but it dried up and I threw it away (it was this pretty sparkling black/blue/violet color). Anyways, here are the two colors;

Again, the pictures do these e/s no justice, so here's another description;

Metal Sun: A gold/orange/rusty pink duochrome. Sometimes, it even looks violet. My favorite of the two.

Electric Green: A green/turquoise/blue-violet color. I like it, but in certain lighting the green look's moldy, so I don't use it as much as Metal Sun.

Anyways, hope you enjoy DuoChrome and the ever so rare TriChrome cosmetic products. I think I may have a few more from Heavenly Natural Beauty, yay!

P.S. If you know any good duochrome or trichrome eye shadows, nail polishes, or lip glosses/sticks, let me know!

Hauling Results in Happy Wallets

So... you know how I said I would save my money? Well... I didn't. BUT I HAVE A JUSTIFIABLE REASON. The order I placed yesterday from Heavenly Natural Beauty was free- well, for me. My brother paid for it, "A late Christmas Gift". WOW. What a nice guy huh? Sixty bucks FOR FREE. If that wasn't enough I went to the Ontario Mills mall today, and decided "Hey, why not splurge a little?"

A little too much splurging, unfortunately. My "haul" only consisted of 5 items (beauty related). The rest were clothes and shoes, but I'm probably not going to discuss them in detail because, well, it's kind of boring. Anyways, first, I went to this place called "Planet Beauty". I've been wanting to buy Tweezerman tweezers for ages, and they never have them at the local Sephoras. I opted not to buy one online, and just bought it there. It was a plain stainless steel one, $20 (I wanted a colored one, but the only colored ones they had were pointed...). I also saw some very pretty Smashbox glosses for $18 each. Every time I purchase make up, I've always been a "more focus on the eyes" kinda gal, mainly because you can play with color more so there than your lips or cheeks (you can't have blue or purple or green lips!). So as my "New Years Resolution" I plan on buying more lip and cheek products. Which is what I did. A few of the glosses caught my eye. I decided on two of them. But then, hey, why not three? Of course, in my mind I thought of the costs separately (Oh it's just $18!) but together plus tax; the four items were $80. At the cash register, this is my (mental) reaction: "HOLY F$()@*#)*@*(%$#CK!!!!!!". Of course, on the outside, I kept my composure and a placid smile.

Even though it was a lot of money, I'm glad I bought them, I do not regret my purchases whatsoever. After weeks (I began to look like a Yeti) of lazy Winter-break-lack-of-tweezing, I set these Tweezers to work. Part of me wishes I took a "before" and "after picture" (because seriously, I was plucking so fast I swore there was smoke coming out of those tweezers!), goddamn my brows were hairy. But they're nice and tidy and plucked now. I keep admiring them in the mirror, because I'm a freak.

I also really like my glosses, I was kind of worried I would have colors similar to them, but luckily I don't. Even those that seem like they might seem similar, the formula and texture made all the difference. Anyways, the three glosses were in (btw, I'm taking all the color descriptions from the lovely Sephora) Candid (a sheer pink-rose with gold shimmer), Flash (a slightly more opaque shimmering golden coral), and Electric (a fuchsia pink with blue-toned shimmer). Of the three, Flash was the most opaque, Electric was slightly less opaque, and Candid was very sheer. FYI Electric SO does not look like the Sephora online picture. You need to fix that Sephora! Also, I found this kind of weird, all of the brushes were the typical felt tip (is that what you called them?) applicators, except for Candid which uses a brush. Hmmm. Wonder why? I don't really have a favorite, but if I had to pick, I think it may be Electric. Mainly because I'm a big fan of the fuchsia/magenta/hot pink lip gloss, not to mention the pretty blue shimmer. And you know what that means; whiter looking teeth! That's always a huge plus. Anyways, enough of my yapping; swatches here:

(different lighting)

(different lighting, and why did I type "Electro" instead of Electric?! Haha sorry, I'm weird that way.)

Now to see them on my lips, hehehe:

Sorry about my lighting, the colors don't look as vibrant as they do in real life. But I'm too lazy to try and retake pictures with better lighting, haha.

Anyways, the rest is pretty much boring (more boring?) from here on out. Victoria's Secret was having it's semi-annual sale, which to me equals cheap beauty products. Of course, I didn't have much money left after the lip glosses and tweezers... so I only bought one thing. Not to mention there weren't many things left there, a lot of nail polishes, a few lip glosses, and some body powders. I don't really use body powders and their lip glosses looked kind of "ew", so I picked out my favorite nail polish shade. I don't have a color like this; it's called "Cocktail". It looks different in different lighting. It's sort of a pink-y, coral, fluorescent orange shade with very subtle gold shimmers. It kind of reminds me of "Vegas Volt" lipstick from MAC in nail polish form, except with little shimmers in it. The nail polish was only $2.88 with tax!!! I had four I originally wanted to buy, I wish I atleast bought two (there was this mauve-pink with purple and blue shimmer in it- wahhh! So pretty) Anyways, swatches here:

(different lighting)

On my fingers (excuse my gross fingers, Winter is a bitch. Also, yes, I AM inadvertently flipping you off!)

Anyways that is all. To tired to talk about clothes that I bought, however I must quickly gush about my shoes. I got these suede mocasin-flat type shoes with cute ribbon detailing, and the lining is with some sort of faux-fur. They're really comfortable (and we're fairly cheap, just $19.99!). I also got some ecosneaks from Simple! I've been wanting these for a long time, and for awhile I thought I could only buy them online. Basically they're really cool; made out of recycled material and hemp. I don't see the style I have on the website anymore, but basically if you're curious they're in the style called "Satire", but the light blue with a small orange band trim style I own (trust me, it's cuter in person) isn't there. Oh well. I like them, but I kind of like the other styles online better. I wanted this one:

But -sigh- you can't always get what you want. Heh.