Review: The Balm NudeTude Palette with Photos and Swatches

TheBalm NudeTude Palette

Hey everyone!

Today's post is of a palette that is quite raved about in the beauty community for being a great palette for neutral shadow lovers out there- theBalm's NudeTude palette. I love neutral eyeshadows. I own both of the Naked Palettes from Urban Decay, and since I had never tried anything from theBalm, I figured this would be a good first thing to try since it has gotten such great reviews. 

I've wanted to order this for a while now, but I waited until the brand went on sale on Hautelook, so I got this palette for 50% off ($18 instead of $36). The only downside to ordering this on Hautelook was that it took quite a while to be delivered (three weeks or so).

So today, I will be showing you guys what the palette contains and a description of each of the shades. The palette comes in thin cardboard packaging, which I just leave off most of the time. It comes with twelve shadows, and a double ended brush. 

One side of the brush has a eyeliner brush, and the other side has an angled shadow brush.

And this is the back of the palette:

So let's take a closer look at those eyeshadows, shall we?

Top Row (from L-R): Sassy, Stubborn, Selfish, Sophisticated, Sexy, Serious

Bottom Row (from L-R): Snobby, Stand-offish, Sultry, Seductive, Silly, Sleek

They're so pretty! I like the layout of this palette- six lighter shades on the left, and then the six darker ones on the left. I also think all the names are really cute.

There are two types of the palette available if you order off theBalm's website, Naughty and Nice. They both have the same shadows in them. Naughty was the only one available on Hautelook, so that's the one I have. Some may find it a little risque, but I don't really care. 

Top (from L-R): Sassy, Stubborn, Selfish

Bottom (from L-R): Snobby, Stand-offish, Sultry

(L-R): Sassy, Snobby, Stubborn, Stand-offish, Selfish, Sultry

1. Sassy: I think this was supposed to be the intended "highlight shade" of the bunch, but on my pale skintone, this shade is just too shimmery. Sassy is an super shimmery white shade, which, if it leaned a little more pink, would be perfect for highlighting for me.

2. Stubborn: I have a feeling that Stubborn is going to be a much loved shade for me in this palette. I love shades that lean pink, but aren't super warm. Stubborn is another shimmery (but not shimmery) shade. It's more pink than Stand-offish.

3. Selfish: This will most likely be my favourite shade of the palette, from what I used so far. I absolutely love taupe shades because they are not too brown that they look orangey on my skin. This shade especially has enough gray in it that it looks stunning on the skin. Love love love. This is also a shimmer.

4. Snobby: I do not think I will be getting much use at all out of this one, unfortunately. It's just really not my colour at all, it's too yellow. Snobby is medium toned yellow gold shimmer.

5 Stand-offish: This shade is the same finish as Stubborn, but it is lighter and leans less pink (more peach). It is very similar to Urban Decay's Sin, and since I love that shade, I know I'll love this one too!

6. Sultry: Sultry is a warm matte (bordering on satin) brown. Darker than Urban Decay's Naked. 

Top Row (from L-R): Sophisticated, Sexy, Serious

Bottom Row (from L-R): Seductive, Silly, Sleek

(L-R): Sophisticated, Seductive, Sexy, Silly, Serious, Sleek

7. Sophisticated: This one is a dark brown with gold undertones, and some bronze shimmer. It's absolutely stunning, and I am very excited to get a lot of use out of this one. In terms of finish, it has more visible shimmer than Stand-offish, Stubborn, Snobby and Selfish. It is somewhat similar to Urban Decay's Darkhorse.

8. Sexy: Sexy is a matte burgundy with plum tones in it. It's a little more red than Urban Decay's Busted. It has a very smooth texture, but not chalky. 

9. Serious: A plain matte black. It has pretty good pigmentation for such a dark shade, but it could be a little bit darker.

10. Seductive: This shade used to be called Schitzo in the old versions of the palette, not sure why they changed it. It is a warm golden brown, with a pearl finish.

11. Silly: Silly is a red toned brown with copper shimmer. This shade was the only one that had an issue with finish. It has fairly bad fall out, and the pigmentation isn't up to par with the rest of the shades.

12. Sleek: A matte dark brown. Very similar to Urban Decay's Backdoor. It has very good colour payoff.

In terms of colour payoff, the mattes were all very smooth and buttery, which is very impressive. With the exception of Silly, all the rest of the shimmery shades applied evenly with a buttery texture. I'm a little disappointed with the texture of Silly, but every palette has to have one not so good shade, right? The pigmentation of these was excellent, and I am very impressed with the quality of these shadows. For $34, it's a more reasonable alternative to the Urban Decay Naked Palettes.

The packaging on this is very sturdy, with a magnet strong enough to keep the cardboard palette shut. It also has a full length mirror.

All in all, I am very pleased with my first product from theBalm, and I will definitely be trying more!

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

NOTD: My BBC (Doctor Who/Sherlock) Themed Nails!

Hi everyone!
I am super excited to bring you this post. For anyone that doesn't know me, I am a huge fan of British television. Mainly Doctor Who and Sherlock, and so today, I will be showing you guys pictures of the nail polish look I did in honour of them.

This isn't going to be a step by step tutorial; that would take way too long, since most of the nails are different from the others.

So firstly, these are all the nail polishes I used:

Yeah, it was kind of a mess afterwards!! I used two tools to make the designs: a double sided dotter tool, and a nail art brush. I know that my nails aren't perfect, but I don't do nail art very often!

So first I'll show you what I did on both thumb nails:

I think it kind of ties the whole theme together! Doing this was actually way harder than I thought it was going to be, hence the uneven lines.

Ok, so here's my right hand:

So on my pinky finger I have the Daleks, which wouldn't make sense for anyone who hasn't seen the show. And on my ring finger (which is the same on both hands), is the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) , which is the Police Box the Doctor uses for his time travel. Then my middle finger is the one I am most proud of. It's the wallpaper in Sherlock's apartment, complete with the little spray painted smiley face.

And finally, my index finger is the 11th Doctor's (Matt Smith) standard outfit (I wear bow ties now...bow ties are cool). 

Here's a close up of the Daleks.

And now on to my left hand! 

So the thumb, ring, and pinky fingers are all the same on this hand, but the index and middle finger are different.

So my index finger is my attempt at the Doctor Who logo, which did not turn out as well as I had hoped. Ah well.

And finally, my middle finger is the 10th Doctor's (David Tennant) standard outfit.

So I hope this gave some inspiration to those of you who are fans of Doctor Who/ Sherlock to maybe try your own themed manicure! Hope you enjoyed!

Thanks for reading!!

Melissa

Review: ELF Long Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow in Soiree

So in my most recent ELF order, one item that caught my eye were the Long Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadows. The way the texture was described caught my interest, so I decided to go ahead and order one. 

The shade I picked was Soiree, which is a warm shimmery plum shade, with silver glitter. It's absolutely gorgeous, and I'm quite pleased with it, seeing as shades are sometimes hard to see what they will actually look like when you view them on ELF's website. 

I am actually in love with this line of eyeshadows. I will definitely be ordering more the next time I make an order. Let's take a look at why I like these so much shall we?

1. Texture: The texture of these is quite strange. They are like a mousse texture; they're spongy, but they're also fluffy and light. I apply this just by patting my finger on top of it a couple of times, I don't have to physically scoop out product. The texture is similar to the Maybelline Dream Mousse Concealers and Blushes. 

2. Colour: This is the main reason I love this so much. You know how when an eyeshadow has like visible glitter in it in the pan, but when you actually put it on your lid, the glitter sort of disappears? This doesn't happen with this. The texture makes sure that the glitter stays. 

The colour is also super rich and pigmented, and glossy/shiny. 

Stunning. 

3. Staying Power: These stay all day without creasing when you wear a primer. I cannot vouch for how they stay without a primer. 

4. Price: All of ELF's products are very reasonably priced, but I think for the quality you're getting with these, $3 is a steal.

All in all, I am very pleased with these shadows. I will definitely getting some more! If you haven't tried them yet, I recommend you do! They make a great "one shadow" look because of how much dimension they have.

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

Review: Maybelline Master Drama Cream Pencil in Taupe Takeover

Hi everyone!

If you haven't already, feel free to pop over to my last post to take my reader survey. It will help me to see what you guys want to see more of (or even less of)!

But anyway, into the review! A couple of posts back, I reviewed the Maybelline Master Drama pencil in Midnight Master, which the plain black of the line. Today I'm reviewing the one in Taupe Takeover. This was released with Maybelline's Summer Collection, which for some reason, is still in drugstores around me.

 

I bought this for the main purpose on smudging it under my waterline on my lower eyelid. I figured it would be a nice pop of shimmer underneath the black. 

This is a twist up liner, so you don't have to sharpen it. One thing I will mention: once you twist it up, you can't twist it back down. 

This liner claims to have creamy glide, bold colour and 24 hour wear. Let's take a look to see if it lives up to that!

1. Creamy Glide: Yes! This is one of the smoothest liners I have tried. It glides on with such creaminess, it's almost a pleasure to put on in the morning. It's not like one of those liners that almost hurts to apply, because it scratches. 

2. Bold Colour: This liner is about as bold as a taupe can be. Obviously it's not one of the deepest darkest colours around, but it's not supposed to be.

3. 24 Hour Wear: Since I only wear this below my waterline, I can't vouch for the staying power of this on the waterline. I imagine that it would be the same as the black one from this line, which didn't stay 24 hours. This one does stay on quite a while on the eye lid, though. 

This is smudgeproof, but not waterproof. It will run if you go swimming (or cry). 

All in all, I like this liner, but not as much as the black one. I don't find myself reaching for this one quite as often, because if I want a pop of shimmer on my lower lid, I'll usually just reach for an eyeshadow. This isn't a necessity for me. 

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

Reader Survey!

Hi guys!

Today I'm doing something a little different. I've put together a survey to best see what things you would like to see happen on this blog. It will take you less than ten minutes, and it doesn't ask anything too personal.

If you'd like to take the time to complete this survey, it would be very much appreciated! I want to know if what I'm writing about interests my readers in the slightest, or if you want to see something completely different.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Thank you for taking the time to complete this!


Melissa

NOTD: Embarca-Dare Ya! from OPI's Fall/Winter San Francisco Collection

Hi guys! 

Today's post is showing you one of the polishes from OPI's newest collection, the San Francisco collection. This was released very recently, for Fall 2013. 

I was tempted by a few different colours from this collection, but I decided to go with only one (for now) and pick up Embarca-Dare Ya! as I do not have many pinks in my collection. 

Embarca-Dare Ya! is a gorgeous raspberry magenta shimmer with golden undertone shimmer. The gold shimmer is quite evident in the bottle, but unfortunately, does not transfer on to the nail very much. 

Here's a bottle shot to show you the gold shimmer: 

And here's a sunlight picture of this colour: 

The gold is a little difficult to see, but it is a very pretty colour nonetheless. This was a little sheer on the first coat, but it became opaque by the second. 

I'm very tempted to try some of the other colours from this collection! I'm eyeing "Peace, Love, and OPI" which is the duochromy one. 

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

Review: Maybelline Master Drama Cream Pencil in Midnight Master

So I recently picked up two of the cream pencil liners from Maybelline's Master Drama line. I've been a big fan of the liquid liner from the line for a while now, and after receiving lots of recommendations for this liner, I thought I would pick up a couple of shades. 

The other one I picked up is in 'Taupe Takeover', which I'll be reviewing soon. That shade was part of Maybelline's Summer collection, which is still available in some drugstores.

But the one I'll be reviewing for you here today is the one in Midnight Master, which is the classic black of the line. I wear black pencil liner every day on my water line, so I figured I would give this one a whirl after hearing good things about how creamy it was. 

This is a twist up liner, so you don't have to sharpen it. One thing I will mention: once you twist it up, you can't twist it back down. 

This liner claims to have "creamy glide, bold colour, and 24 hr wear." Let's see if it lives up to these claims!

1. Creamy Glide: Yes! This is one of the smoothest liners I have tried. It glides on with such creaminess, it's almost a pleasure to put on in the morning. It's not like one of those liners that almost hurts to apply, because it scratches. 

2. Bold Colour: This is the number one reason I love this eye liner so much. It's no secret that a lot of black liners do not show up with intensity on your waterline, without really having to work at building up the colour. This liner glides on with rich, dark black in one swipe. I love it!

THAT'S ONE SWIPE. 

3. 24 hour wear: This is where we lose some points. Now I must say, I can only vouch for the staying power of this on the waterline, and I know that liners do not last as long on the waterline as they do on the eyelid. This does not last 24 hours on my waterline. It doesn't even last five. But I do believe it will last much longer on the eyelid. 

It also says this liner is smudge proof, which, once it sets, I have proven to be true. However, it is not waterproof! It will run if you cry or go swimming or something. 

Anyway, all in all, I would highly recommend this if you're looking for a rich black liner. I absolutely love it, and it will definitely become a staple in my collection! It's so much cheaper than my Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Perversion, that's for sure!

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

NOTD: OPI Thanks a Windmillion with OPI Lights of Emerald City

Today's post is going to give you a quick look at the nail polish look I currently have on that I just love. These two polishes are both from OPI. 

Thanks a Windmillion is from last Spring's Holland Collection, which for some reason, is still being sold in the stores where I live. I think the collection might have been added to the permanent line. 

Thanks A Windmillion (cute name) is a muted, dusty, blue toned green creme. It is very very similar to Mermaids' Tears from the Pirates of the Carribean collection. It's a gorgeous colour, and needed two coats to be opaque. 

Lights of Emerald City is from Oz The Great and Powerful collection which was released earlier this year to coincide with the release of the movie. That collection is still available in some stores. 

This is the colour I used to put over the Thanks A Windmillion. It consists of a clear base with two types of square glitter- large white squares, and smaller iridescent pieces. Depending on what colour base you layer this over, it can look golden green (darker bases) or blueish purple (lighter bases). It was kind of difficult to get this evenly dispersed and I didn't end up with quite the look I wanted, but oh well. I'll try harder next time. 

Here's a close up shot of the bottle.

Thanks for reading!!

Melissa