LA Fashion District / Garment District / Santee Alley

Hi Guys, 

Wanted to quickly share this with you. So last weekend I went to LA with some of my fav love bugs for my birthday. One of our stops was the LA Fashion District (also known as Garment District and Santee Alley) to purchase cheap jewelry!

Each of the rings above cost me no more than $3 (you can haggle there)

This necklace and matching earrings cost $4.  It's VERY flattering with black tube dresses amongst other things.

Love these earrings. They cost $4

Everything else you see on the table (jewelry only) was only a buck =D

For varieties sake, I purchased several $1 earrings in colors that I don't already own. If you ever get a chance to visit the LA area, I recommend checking this area out. Oh, and Huntington Beach..we had a BLAST

Till next time, take care.

MACs Diva Lipstick on a WOC

Yes, another Red lippy has been added to my collection.
The latest color is "Diva" from MAC. It's a deep reddish-burgundy matte lipstick. I've worn this color the last two days and in 8 hrs I still had/have no need to reapply.  Yes, even after withstanding dinner (pizza!) Impressive!

Just a quick color comparison of Diva against some other MAC Reds: Diva, Mac Red, and Ruby Woo. 

In the near future, I'll be sure to add some swatches of these reds on my skin for better color and texture comparisons. In the mean time, below is a picture of what Diva looks like on NW45/46 toned skin (sorry for those of you who don't follow my MAC reference!). While it definitely has burgundy tones to it, it isn't as visible in person. It looks like a beautiful deep lightly brownish red.

I recommend this color to anyone who is not comfortable wearing bright reds.
Let me know what you think lavs.

Eyeshadow Base Review - Oily Lids

Hello Lav's Hope you're doing well!

If I plan to wear eyeshadow for more than 45 minutes, I better use a primer otherwise my eyeshadow will clump amidst the excess oil on my lids. 

Products I've used as bases in the past are:

MAC Bases

MAC Fluidline 

Coastal Scents Cream Liners

Revlon Cream Shadows

Elf Duo Cream Shadows

Loreal Hip Duo Cream Liners

Makeup Forever Aqua Creams

Ben Nye's Lumiere Creme Palette

Prettyyyy

I wish I could tell you that all of these products are amazing eyeshadow bases, but alas, with much regret, I cannot!

For those of us with excessively oily lids, primer application underneath bases are necessary.

The bases that have worked best for me without having to use primers are MACs Fluidline Cream liners and Makeup Forevers Aqua Cream. Loreal Hip Cream Liners work well also, however, I do not recommend them as they seem to dry out (in its container quickly..so they don't last as long as I'd like) much quicker than MACs Fluidline liners.

The rest of the aforementioned bases crease heavily in my lids and quite honestly, to avoid creasing, I'd have to use very little color ( totally defeating the purpose of using a base in the first place).

Of the bases that crease in my lids, Ben Nye's Lumiere Color Wheel colors are the most pigmented. Therefore, I can get away with using a little bit of it and still achieve great color pay off but again it must be partnered with a primer!

Makeup Forever's Aqua Cream and MACs Fluidline are the best that I've tried. MACs Fluidline drys quickly, so you have to apply it relatively quickly. It's also fairly water proof so you'll need a great makeup remover. MF's Aqua Cream is waterproof and washes off easily with makeup removing soap. There's so much color pay off, and MF offers these in several colors. Both, I highly recommend.

The rest of this post has a few pictures of the bases I've mentioned and side commentary. Till next time , take care!

MF's Aqua Cream ( I have 3 of these now, they are GREAT)

Revlon Cream Bases

MAC Bases - I love MAC, but their bases don't have a home in my future makeup stash.

These are super cheap bases, decent color payoff, but crease like no other. Will not be purchasing again. Good thing they where only $1 each =D

Loreal Hip Cream Liner. Do you guys see how it's looking dry? I've had my fluidline for longer and it's perfectly hydrated.

Love this stuff!! =D GO MAC

Coastal Scents Cream Liners. The only liner I like from this Company was the Black one.  The rest of the colors I received where very soft almost liquidy (it's hard to explain) and didn't apply well.

Inglot Cosmetics Haul - WOC friendly (HUGE Picture HAUL)

Hey Dawlings, This post is a swatch and initial review of the products purchased in my Inglot Cosmetics Haul. I have not used them yet, hence, I cannot comment on them in that respect. Keep an eye out for a follow up post in a few weeks after I get to know my beeriful Inglot E/s' better. 

The very sight of this package made me happy!

Free Face Primer Samples. I'll review these eventually.

The single eyeshadows and beneath that the boxed palettes.

The single shadows came rubber banded in bunches of 6

I purchased two palettes . The 20 and 5 shadow palettes. Not sure how long this will last but once I hit purchase, these palette prices dropped to $5 each. Normally, the 20 palette costs $25..getting it for $5 was a DEAL

The magnetic attraction between the cover and the palette is strong. Rest assured, your eyeshadow will be secure.

Some of my eyeshadows looked as if smooshed by someones finger, however, the shadows were fine when I opened them. I still didn't like this. About 5 of my shadows arrived like this.

The magnets at the bottom of the palette were not "even" but it doesn't seem to matter much. The eyeshadows adhere to it strongly.

25 eyeshadow colors purchased.

The shadows came in nice packaging.  Quite honestly, you don't even need to use the space alloted to grab the eyeshadow. Simply turning it over was all I needed to do for it to come right out.

Size comparison next to a MAC eyeshadow.

Size comparison next to a Ben Nye single shadow

Ben Nye, Inglot, MAC size comparison

Elf's Eyeshadow Palette comparison

Pretttttty

My color purchase in this particular palette was completely influenced by reading FancyFaces Inglot Cosmetics Review

Just showing you the ever so small yet mights magnet

You can stack the magnetic palettes on top of one another

The shadows I purchased. I'm going to rearrange them to fit the ROYGBIV (sort of). sequence

The eyeshadows are secure in the palettes.

Just a pic of the back of the packaging the palette came in.

Swatches: It's important for us beautifully darker complected beauties to see what these colors look like on our skin. I haven't been able to find swatches of these on darker skin yet..maybe I'm the first? muahahahahah!
Anyhow, Enjoy the swatches. Initial observation, - these colors are stunning.

Pearl 447, AMC 36, Matte 376, Pearl 434, AMC 10

Matte 366, Matte 382, DS 495, AMC 50, Pearl 449

Pearl 431, Matte 362, Shine 48, AMC 66, AMC 73

AMC 13, Matte 371, AMC 70, AMC 68, DS 483

AMC 59, DS 477, Matte 384, AMC 58, AMC 57

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Till next time!

Mini Haul from Sephora

Hey dawlings! I'm going to try and do more haul posts for you guys to hopefully provide swatches and all that jazz.

Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in #20 (Blue) and #15 (Taupe). Urban Decay's Liquid Eyeliner in  "Perversion" or Black.

Quick Summary: I think very highly of the Aqua Creams-which is why I've added more to my collection.  For those of you with oily lids, these aqua creams are simply amazing. To read my overall review of the Aqua Creams Click Here . You'll find swatches of Aqua Cream #14 there.

#15 Taupe - Great everyday wear base color

#20 Vivid Blue

I just want to eat em!

Quick thing to note, you cannot use all the Aqua Creams for your eyes. Some are just for use on your cheeks and lips. So pay close attention to the labeling in the front (See above)

"Perversion" Liquid liner from Urban Decay

#15, #20, Perversion

Quick Review of "Perversion": It's a great eyeliner. 


Know that there's nothing water proof about it (it doesn't claim to be anyway). This makes it easy to wash off and easy to erase mistakes. Works like a charm and really like many cheaper liquid eyeliners I've tried (except for ELFs liquid liner - HORRIBLE). What seemingly sets this apart from other liners is the brush applicator. It's very thin, long, and light weight. It allows me to apply eyeliner very nicely and I have been able to achieve much nicer cat eyes using this liner.


Oh! Let's not forget, this is an animal cruelty free product. Go Urban Decay! 
I will be buying this again and in more colors.