My Inglot Palette

Inglot, which has recently become more popular in America, is perhaps the most underrated make up brand of the past few years. The freedom system, which allows you to buy the palettes and eyeshadows separately, enables you to make your own palette with whatever colors you like. I decided to make a neutrals palette, with a highlight, a pink, two browns and a trio of mattes. The colors are super pigmented and last all day on me with a primer (I have fairly oily eyelids so a primer is a must have for me!). They blend easily and have a nice sheen to them without being overly glittery.  I'd say the only downside to Inglot shadows is that instead of names they just use numbers.

395: This shade is a creamy offwhite color with a nice light sheen to it. It works great as a highlight color and has nice yellowy/cream undertones.

397: A nice champagne pink that works well dusted all over the lid or as part of a look with the rest of the shadows. It has great pigmentation for a light color and blends very nicely with #402 and #409

402: When swatched this has a nice reddish brown hue, but once put on the lids it looks much more grey toned and subdued. Probably my least used shade but nonetheless a great color!

409: A very rich chocolatey brown. It's perhaps my favorite of the palette and certainly gets the most use! It is very pigmented so it has to be used carefully but it lasts all day without migrating from the eyelids.

107R: Just basic matte brown shades that I can use either on the lids or to fill my brows. They work well because they are not chalky and are long lasting.

Overall an excellent purchase (totaling around $45) well worth the money. Each eyeshadow is almost double the size of a MAC one and less expensive. Perhaps the best bang for your buck within department store make up. Although Inglot stores are beginning to become more prominent, if there isn't one near you I would say purchasing the shadows online is your best bet!

XX
 

EmmaLenn

Review- MAC Crew Highlight Powder

The MAC Crew Highlight Powder is part of the current Summer 2012 Hey, Sailor! collection. Although its listed as a highlight powder, I personally find it suits me much more as a blush. It's not very shimmery at all and its a lovely light pink rosy color. It looks beautiful on the cheeks although I don't think it's a very versatile product because it probably wouldn't suit darker skin tones. Also, It's not the most long lasting product as I would say it is basically gone after 8-9 hours of wear. I find that it lasts longer on top of my liquid foundation than on top of my bare minerals powder foundation. However despite its flaws I would say that I really like the true baby pink shade of this product and its a great edition to my make up collection!

It comes in a fun limited edition navy blue packaging and at .35 oz its almost twice the size of an ordinary blush. It has a beautiful striped pattern with a shiny white overspray. As I use the product up, the white overspray will be the first to go! To see what the powder looks like excavated visit Temptalia's review. 

I hope you enjoyed this review!

XX

EmmaLenn

NOTD: NARS Kutki and Topshop Ice Crush

I can say right now, that I have not been this excited about a nail polish in a very long time! NARS Kutki, part of the Thakoon for NARS collection (available at sephora and NARS counters) is a beautiful white based blue. The application is a bit streaky, but the color is so beautiful I think its completely worth it! It dries very quickly and so far after 3 days has barely chipped (the picture below is from 3 days after application). 

To spice things up, I painted Topshop's Ice Crush glitter onto my fourth finger on each hand. While the glitter doesn't photograph that well, you can sort of tell that it's a silver based holographic glitter. Top Shop nail polishes run at $12 a bottle in the US which is quite expensive considering how small the bottles are, but honestly with this glitter I think its completely worth it! Keep in mind neither the picture here nor the picture on the Topshop website do the polish justice. It's really something you would need to see in person!

With slightly different lighting in these two shots you can see how the color varies depending on the light. I would say that the second picture is a more accurate representation of what the color really looks like in person.

XX

EmmaLenn

Neutral MAC Eyeshadows

To some this may look like an exorbitant amount of eyeshadows while to others it may just be a paltry collection. However, to me its just perfect!

From Left to Right: Naked Lunch, All That Glitters, Sable, Bronze, Twinks, Blackberry

Just as I like them, they are all very neutral shades that will compliment nearly every skin tone. Unfortunately I don't have swatches because I couldn't photograph them with the lighting in my room.

Naked Lunch (frost) : As a nice light beige color, it's the perfect highlight color. It looks beautiful both in the inner corners of your eyes or swept across the lid. No matter what combination of darker shades of shadows I use in a look, I always use this as my inner corner color! It is one of mac's most popular shades and a true staple in my make up bag.

All That Glitters (Veluxe Pearl): This shade is very similar to Naked Lunch just slightly more orangy. While naked lunch leans more on the pink side, All that Glitters has a more peachy hue that compliments more pinky skin tones than yellow based ones. As I have a more yellow based skin tone I tend not to use this shadow excessively. Nonetheless it is absolutely beautiful when swept over any more grey toned shadows.

Sable (Velvet): Sable is perhaps the most perfect plum brown eyeshadow I have ever seen. As my favorite of all my mac shadows, I use this one in nearly every look I do. Unlike a traditional brown eyeshadow (such as bronze), it is more purple/taupe based which allows one to use it for a beautiful smokey eye.

Bronze (Frost): Besides for all that Glitters, this is my only other gold/peachy leaning eyeshadow. Bronze is the perfect brown sheeny eyeshadow that works perfectly for a daily neutral eye. My favorite way to wear it is topped on top of the Maybelline Color Tattoo cream eyeshadow in Bad to the Bronze along with All That Glitters.

Twinks (Veluxe Pearl): Although this is a very popular shade, it is my least favorite of my collection. While it is an excellent eyeshadow, to me it just seems like a darker version of sable. As I already have sable in my collection, it seemed to me a bit of an unnecessary purchase. Nonetheless it works as a great crease color and I use it quite frequently!

Blackberry (Matte): This is the only matte eyeshadow I have ever purchased individually and it was completely worth it! It's a beautiful plum purple shade that works great for a smokey eye with Naked Lunch, Sable and Twinks. It's the newest addition to my collection and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a nice dark matte color that won't look too overpowering on the eye!

XX
EmmaLenn

Review- Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge in Powder Pink

It has been months since I posted anything here, so I decided to give it a go! Now the product I'm reviewing today I've had for a couple months and all I can say is that I ABSOLUTELY ADORE IT. I honestly don't know how I could have been a make up connoisseur for so long without this in my arsenal.

It's a cream blush but can also be used as a lip tint First off, the color is exactly the same as my natural flush. Its also matte, which I absolutely love. After all, if I'm going for a natural blush I don't want my face to be shimmering like a vampire in the sun. Second of all, it is extremely pigmented and you barely need any of the product. If you just touch it lightly with your finger it's enough for an entire cheek. I've been using this practically every day for the past couple of months and I cannot say enough good things about it! If its within your budget I highly recommend you run out and grab it immediately!

XX
EmmaLenn

Review-Lancôme Hypnose Drama Mascara

Love it or Hate it????
I can't decide.
Alrighty, well maybe i should make a pros and cons list to decide!
Pros: MOST AMAZING EFFECT EVER!!! This Mascara is unbelievable in that it gives me the most dramatic lashes ever. They are crazy long (touch my brow bone when I blink) and super intense.

Cons: Strangest looking lashes ever? I don't even know how to describe it except for extremely spidery. This is the clumpiest mascara I've ever used in that it groups your lashes together and makes it look so you have longer lashes, but a lot fewer. Plus, it smells absolutely wretched. I know I shouldn't be sniffing my mascara, but when I open the bottle at least a foot away from my face, I can immediately smell it. Don't worry! it wears off once you put the mascara on. Does not hold a curl at all! Maybe it's just my crazy straight lashes, but basically my lashes just stick straight out even if I used a curler.

Ok well my overall thought about this mascara is that it is very very intense. The lashes you get with it are amazing but probably a little much for day to day wear. However, if you are going for the dramatic look, then this is definitely the mascara for you! If your looking for an everyday mascara, maybe try something a little less clumpy!
Overall very satisfied with the dramatic effect, but not too happy about the clumping problem!

I hope this was helpful!

XX
EmmaLenn

Review- Lush Oatifix Fresh Face Mask!

Hello again,
I'm back once more for another review!
Now, I've walked past lush a million times and the only thing i could ever think was how much the store reeked. I know that's terrible, but what can I say? Honest opinions matter. Anyways, I've heard great things about the products at lush; however since every time i step in the store I become instantly nauseated, I decided it wasn't worth it. Nevertheless, I finally broke down when my friend started telling me about they're fresh face masks! At about 7 dollars a tub they're totally worth it! I have a terrible case of dry skin on my cheeks but quite oily skin on my forehead so I decided to get a mask that would deal with one or the other. The sales assistant recommended Oatifix for dry skin and I must say it has worked miracles!

Pros: Works amazingly well for a reasonable price, smells like sweet oatmeal, delivers exactly what the packaging says
Cons: odd texture that looks very weird when on the face, a bit tough to wash off even with warm water, leaves strange residue on skin for a couple of hours

So even though the cons list is longer than the pros, that doesn't mean anything bad for this product. For my first use i took it fresh out of the refrigerator and applied it straight to my clean face. After leaving it on for about 10 minutes i washed it off with cold water (i didn't realize you should use warm water). Now, i realized there was this strange feeling to my face (a bit gooey and sticky) that i couldn't remove but it went away after a couple of hours. My face felt amazing after and I was so pleased with the results!  I've done it 2 times since then using warm water to wash it off, but I've found that I liked the feeling of my skin from the cold water better than I did from the warm water.

I hope this was helpful!

XX
EmmaLenn