In the Spotlight: Urban Decay Book of Shadows Volume II

The Urban Decay Book of Shadows Volume II ($48) is the second installation in Urban Decay’s Book of Shadows series. The palette offers 16 gorgeously pigmented eyeshadows, half of which are new and exclusive to the palette, a travel size version of the cult favorite UDPP, two travel sized 24/7 Eye Pencils, and a look book.

On to the packaging

The packaging is rather simple and dainty with peacock feather prints but is at the same time awfully bulky and heavy. With that said, this palette isn’t exactly something you’d like to tote around on a daily basis. The 16eyeshadows, 2travel sized 24/7 eye pencils and travel sized UDPP are all housed in a drawer that doesn’t slide off as breezily as I wish it would. Other than these minor complaints, Urban Decay is a little more generous this year by including a ginormous mirror and a look book that’s kept inside a secret compartment.

On to the contents

The palette offers an assortment of colors ranging from neutrals to bright and fun hues. AC/DC, Nylon, Mushroom, Sphynx, Jinx, Homegrown, Misdemeanor and Perversion are new and exclusive to this palette. The existing eyeshadows are Sellout, Gunmetal, Ecstasy, Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, Half Baked, Twice Baked, Flipside and YDK. The palette also includes two 24/7 eye pencils and a travel sized bottle of the UDPP which make this palette handy when traveling (NOTE: Traveling, meaning that you’ll throw this huge book into your luggage, not your purse).

At first thought, $48 for a 16pc eyeshadow palette with some extras on the side may seem a little too pricey for some. But if you examine the palette, you’ll be surprised to discover a huge amount of savings that this palette offers. Let me show you how much you can save with this palette by doing a little bit of math.

The eyeshadows in the BOS Vol. II are .03oz each, whereas a single eyeshadow (not the deluxe eyeshadow) that’s .05oz retails for $16. With only a .02oz difference, let’s put the eyeshadows in the BOS Vol. II at $10 a piece. The travel sized UDPP included in the BOS Vol. II is 3.75ml. On the other hand, the full size UDPP that’s 10ml sells for $17. In this case, let’s put the travel sized cult favorite at $6. Finally, we come to the two travel sized 24/7 eye pencils that are .8g each. The regular 24/7 eye pencil that’s 1.2g is $17 while a mini 24/7 eye pencil is $4. Wondering how I come up with $4 for the mini 24/7 eye pencil? Simple. Divide $36 to the nine 24/7 eye pencils included in the 24/7 Super Stash Set and you’ll end up with $4. Now we can assume the worth of the travel sized 24/7 eye pencil at $8.

The equation:

2 .8g 24/7 Eye Pencils x $8 = $16

1 3/75ml UDPP x $6 = $4

16 .03oz eye shadows x $10 = $160

Total: $182

You read that right, ladies. By purchasing this palette, you save a whopping $134, give or take. Now if that’s not enough to convince you to shove this palette to your cart, I don’t know what will. Just think about it this way: the 16 eyeshadows included in this kit make this palette worth your every penny. Now think about the add ins. Don’t you think Urban Decay was nice enough to add in a few extras for you for being a good girl?

On to the quality

Urban Decay is known for highly pigmented eyeshadows that have a smooth creamy and buttery texture which was not sacrificed with this palette. They apply smoothly and beautifully and can easily be blended. They won’t crease nor fade given that a good base/primer is used underneath. On the other hand, if you’re not big on eyeshadows with a shimmery, frosty and/or metallic finish, you may not like this palette. But if you love colors and shimmer, I tell you, this palette worth your $48. The inclusion of two other cult favorites, the UDPP and 24/7 eye pencils, makes this palette of even greater value. Since I’m quite certain that we all know how amazing Urban Decay’s 24/7 eye pencils are, I won’t go on and talk about these anymore. If you haven’t tried Urban Decay’s much talked about eye pencils, you can read my review on these by clicking here.

On to my gripes

I commend Urban Decay for including a look book in this palette; however, it would have been so much better had they included some how to’s because, let’s face it, one can get lost in a sea of 16beautiful eyeshadows.

The colors are beautiful and highly pigmented; however, an inclusion of a highlight shade and/or matte eyeshadows could certainly make this palette even better.

Yes, the packaging is pretty as it is, but I would love it even more if the eyeshadow box is detachable from the rest of the packaging just like how it is with my Too Faced Glamour Revolution Palette.

On to the swatches

This is an incomplete swatch. I couldn't fit the last four colors on my arm.

First Row

Second Row

Third Row

Fourth Row

A side by side comparison of the travel sized 24/7 eye pencil and mini 24/7 eye pencil

A side by side comparison of Bourbon & Corrupt

Must-have or pass-up? Let me know in the comments!

(I'll try to include a breakdown of the shadows included in this palette, although that would make this review even longer. If you think it is needed, let me know by writing it in the comments section)

Urban Decay 24/7 Super Stash

How many reviews on the Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencils have you read? How many swatches of these gorgeously pigmented eye pencils have you seen? A thousand, perhaps? Does it matter? I don't think so. Personally, I don't think anyone will ever get enough of how bold, rich and vibrant the hues of these eye pencils are.

Urban Decay on the 24/7 Super Stash...

You asked for more! This set includes NINE mini-sized 24/7 Eye Pencils, including FOUR shades exclusive to this set: Corrupt (brown sparkle), Binge (navy – finally!), Eldorado (a new gold), and Oil Slick (black sparkle). Also included are your favorites Zero, Graffiti, Ransom, Rockstar and Stash.

This rainbow of shades is the ultimate kit: the right balance of neutrals and brights for any look. Need to modernize your little black dress? Try bold strokes of gold, green or blue shades for some exotic flair. Wearing that bold-printed tunic? Try smoldering layers of neutral Eye Pencils to add depth and gleam without competing. Use them in combination, use them alone, give a few away. (Okay, don’t do that.)

Small enough to fit in a wallet or slimmest of evening bags, these mini-sized pencils still feature the exact formula you love in our full-sized pencils: extra creamy, easy-glide, and waterproof. Any UD junkie will pee their pants at the sight of this amazing set.

Urban Decay on the 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils...

The best Eye Pencil ever, ever, ever! Never before has a pencil this creamy and brilliant been waterproof, too. Velvety-soft, this never-before-seen formula stays soft and creamy for blending (about 30 seconds), then dries down to a long-lasting finish that WILL NOT budge. Line eyes with a hint of color or go for the full artistic, multi-hued effect with the wide selection of lush tropical hues, deep metallics and unusually vibrant neutrals. Incredible with Urban Decay Eyeshadows!

Created with 50% moisturizing ingredients suspended in a sophisticated waterproof formula, 24/7 Eye Pencils offer long-lasting color and a dreamy, creamy feel when applied. With Jojoba Oil, Vitamin E and Cottonseed Oil.

Yay!

• Highly pigmented. Just look at these swatches! All nine of them were swiped once on my hand without any base/primer. The colors are rich and vibrant and stay true to each shade's description. Aren't the colors beautiful? (I know you can't really see the glitters/sparkles in Corrupt, Graffiti and Oil Slick. I'm sorry, my poor point&shoot camera doesn't capture details so well as compared to DSLRs. If only my beloved could do this for me. Sigh.)

From L to R: Stash (dark golden green), Rockstar (dark purple), Ransom (bright iridescent purple), Binge (navy), Graffiti (bright green with silver sparkle), Eldorado, (a new gold), Corrupt (brown sparkle), Oil Slick (black sparkle), Zero (black)

• Smooth, creamy, buttery, soft feel. I don't know if those adjectives are enough to describe how perfectly these eye pencils glide on the lids. These eye pencils make applying eyeliner so stress free and easy. There's absolutely no tugging, whatsoever --- 100% guaranteed.
  
• Long Wearing. Never in my entire life have I owned an eye pencil that stays on my waterline, lower lashline and upper lashline with no smudging and/or fading. Well, okay, it does budge very very slightly on my upper lashline without a primer on. It's nothing noticeable, unless you inspect it at a very close distance in front of a mirror. To tell you honestly, not even the infamous Zero transferred to my upper lid. It should be able to hold up to any circumstance unless your lids are an oil mine.
  
• Smudgeable, great for smokey looks. Haha! I coined the word. While these eye pencils can be smudged within 30seconds after application, they're bound to stay on your lashlines regardless of the heat or the rain. So if you're aiming for a smokey look with these pencils, be sure to smudge them in under 30seconds, coz once they're set, no amount of smudging can be done.
  
• Color Variety. Whether you're a neutrals loving girl, a bright-colored makeup lover, or a rocker chick, you'll surely have use of the colors included in this set.
  
• Come off easily. These pencils are not a pain to remove as they come off quite easily with makeup remover or just any facial cleanser. The downside, they do leave some stain on your lower lashline. Well, nothing a q-tip can't remedy.
  

Nay!

• Price. Okay, let's be honest, $17 for a single regular-sized eye pencil is a bit steep. What about nine mini eye pencils for $36? That would make it $4 a piece. Worth it? I'd say, YES. I just wish they weren't as small as they are.

See how small they are compared to my Revlon Colorstay Eyeliner Pencil? Well, the "eyeliner" inside Revlon's tube is probably just 1/4 of the entire length of these UD eye pencils.

• Availability. Sadly, Urban Decay is not sold at any counter in the Philippines. I wish they had even just a small counter in the metro so we wouldn't have to go about purchasing through online sellers and waiting for a month for our orders to arrive.

My verdict
These eye pencils, though a bit heavy on the pocket, are worth every cent. They come in a wide selection of colors from neutrals, to plums to bright hues that are just as vibrant and rich as you would imagine them to be. They're smudgeproof, budgeproof, and waterproof but are a breeze to remove as you retire at night. All in all, these eye pencils make a great addi(c)tion to anybody's makeup arsenal.

TIP
As you all know, ZERO is not the most smudgeproof and waterproof eye pencil of the bunch (though I really never had any issue using it on my lashlines and waterlines) so if you intend to use ZERO on your waterline and lower lashline, set it with an eyeshadow to prevent it from smudging.

To prove that these pencils are smudgeproof and waterproof, here's a little experiment.

After swatching these eye pencils on my hand, I rubbed them quite a few times to see if they would budge. They didn't at first, but after rubbing them consistently for a couple of minutes, they all showed signs of smudging. (I don't know what happened to the photo that I took after smudging them about a hundred times.)

I didn't stop with my first experiment, so I took the swatches in the shower and rubbed them off under running water. Wanna see what happened? Check the two photos below. As you can see in the first photo, Zero faded quite a lot. It lost its intensity with continuous rubbing under running water. The other swatches still look good, in my opinion.

This is how they looked like after rubbing them off with a soapy/sudsy exfoliating skin towel.

After completing my experiment, I was able to successfully remove the swatches off, leaving me with a very red burning hand. I'll have that disgusting photo uploaded tomorrow morning. I can't wait to get some shut-eye.

I hope my little experiment enlightened you guys a little bit.

But wait! There's more! (Haha. No, I'm not trying to sell you anything.)

Here's a photo to show you how beautiful Binge is. Be sure to slip on your Rihanna persona when you have this on ;)
I barely have any make up in this photo except for Skinfood Peach Sake BB Cream, a light dusting of ELF Studio blush in Peachy Keen, NYX Round Lipstick in Perfect on my lips and UD 24/7 eye pencil in Binge. My lashes look non-existent! Ugh. That worthless Smashbox Bionic Mascara's gonna get it one of these days!

You probably can't see it well, but I'm wearing Rockstar in this photo.

I wasn't expecting this review to be this long. Nevertheless, I hope you'll find this review helpful, especially if you're planning on purchasing this set, or the individual 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils.

Coastal Scents 88 Warm Palette

After waiting for so many months, I finally have my grubby hands on this palette, the Coastal Scents 88 Warm Palette. Well, I've had this with me since the end of September but wasn't able to play with it enough until recently.

top: no flash
bottom: with flash

If you will notice in a lot of my FOTDs/EOTDs, I lean towards more browns and bronze-y hues because these colors look very flattering on all skin tones. So if you have an inexplicable love affair with browns and bronze-y hues like I do, this palette is for you. It has a great selection of eyeshadows that will surely suit your skin tone, whether you be warm or cool-skinned. Now you can boldly wear silver eye makeup the way Kim Kardashian does!

Yay!

• Price. 88 gorgeously pigmented eyeshadows for $25? That's a steal, baby!
  
• Color Variety. With 88 colors to mix and match, you'll surely never run out of ideas for your eye makeup.
• Variety of finishes. This palette has everything from matte, to satin, to shimmery to glittery.
• Color Payoff. The eyeshadows in this palette have a very gorgeous pigmentation with or without a primer or an eyeshadow base. Not convinced? See the swatches below.

Pretty, aren't they? All colors were swatched dry, without a base.

• Pan Size.
• Staying Power. I have to say, impressive. The colors did not fade nor crease on my eyes for an entire 12hours.
  
• Compact. A palette as thin as Macbook Air can surely fit in your purse.
  

Nay!

• Too many highlight shades.
  
• Fragile. Both the case and the eyeshadows can easily break. In fact, if you click on the palette's photos above, you can easily tell that one of the eyeshadows broke in transit and was restored upon arrival. Curious to know which one it is? Go to the third row from the bottom, then count five to the right.
  
• Texture. Some eyeshadows are a bit too powdery.

My Verdict
I say, go grab yourself one if you're looking for colors to suit your warm skin tone or if you simply want to expand your makeup collection. This is also great for a novice who tends to gravitate more toward plums and browns/bronzes which almost always go well with most skin tones. With this very versatile palette, you can do neutral everyday makeup and bridal makeup and even create dramatic smokey eyes. All that for only 25bucks.

So what do you think, yay or nay?

Too Faced Glamour Revolution

As promised, here's my review on the Too Faced Glamour Revolution Kit.


I'm stoked and head over heels in love with my Too Faced Glamour Revolution Kit from the artsy-fartsy packaging down to everything inside it. Look how gorgeous the front cover is! This makeup kit is love! Okay, let me breathe first. I'm getting too excited.

This amazing kit opens up like a book with a pull-out mirror on one side, while on the other side are 3 lipglosses, 1blush, 1bronzer, and three pocket cards that give you clever ways to use the eyeshadows housed in this kit.


The nine gorgeously pigmented eyeshadows and the mini eyeshadow insurance are contained in the slide drawer on the side of the book. Whoever designed this kit is a genius!


There goes the slide drawer!

Here are swatches of the nine eyeshadows. See how gorgeous they are? They're so pigmented even without a base! Can you imagine how beautiful they'd look on your lids when foiled? Oh, double the gorgeousness!

From L-R (I tried my best to describe them for you)
Neptune - shimmery teal
Party Girl - grape purple with blue glitter
Dirt Bag - glittery deep brown (perfect for the crease)
Glamazon - shimmery pinkish-purple (very pretty!)
London Calling - taupey-gold with loads of chunky glitter (not too fond of this one. its glitters are way too chunky)
Label Whore - reddish brown with fine green glitter (my favorite of all!)
Boy Toy - shimmery pale rose pink (another pretty shade)
George & Weezie - shimmery milky light gold (this one's lovely. I can see myself using this a lot)
Milk Chocolate - matte chocolate brown

Here's the blush and bronzer. The blush is a very pretty bubble gum pink with fine shimmer. It shows up well on most skin tones I've tried it on. Definitely a winner!

The bronzer is perfect as an overall color, but not so much as a contour shade unless you're fair skinned.


I don't have swatches of the lip glosses since they really don't have much color in them. I don't think there's any difference when compared to each other. All three glosses look pretty much the same when swatched on my arm and on my lips. I'm honestly not too fond of these. They smell delicious, but I find them a little too tacky. Maybe it's just me. Others who bought this same kit didn't complain much about these glosses except for the fact that they're not pigmented. Maybe my standards are too high? Good thing they last a pretty decent amount of time on my lips. I you want more color, you can just simply top your lipstick with any of the three glosses.

All in all, I think this is a good all-in-one kit to have and to carry around in your luggage. I won't recommend you to tote this with you everyday since the book itself is rather huge and bulky, but it's ideal for traveling. It houses everything you'll ever need on a trip. If there's anything else that you need that this kit can't provide (you can't have everything, ya know), that would be a complete brush set and you're good to go. With this kit, every penny is money well spent.

If there's anything else about this kit that you want me to write about, tell me in the comments section.

Have a great week ladies!

Product Review: Milani Glimmer Stripes

Wondering why I'm on a roll today? It's simply because I'm down with fever. Well, it's not as bad as last night but I decided to call in sick today so I can rest because I feel my body temperature going higher when I'm in the office. I don't know, but it could be because of stress. Oh well...

Well, here's a review on two Milani Glimmer Stripes palettes.

Milani is one of the somewhat understated drugstore brands in the US. Their products, especially their eyeshadows, are said to be comparable to MAC by a lot of beauty bloggers. Well, this is something I have yet to prove since I don't own a lot of eye products from neither brand.

To know more about Milani, click here.

Left: Terra Glimmer; Right: Bronze Glimmer

Product Description (from the Milani website)
The perfect shimmer-stripe blends for eyes, cheeks and face! Brush on pearly color to accentuate and radiate cheekbones. Swipe a stripe to create endless eye shadow looks. Swirl across all for a sexy, sun-kissed glow.

Available in 6 spectacular shades from subtle to vibrant!

Left: Terra Glimmer; Right: Bronze Glimmer

Yay!

• Price. The Glimmer Stripes sell for $7.49 on Cherry Culture and on the Milani Website. I got mine at $3.66 on Ebay(thanks wackywancho).
• Packaging. The crystal clear cover makes it easy to see the shades. At least, I won't have to look at the back to see which palette I have in my hands. I also think the case is pretty and simple. Lastly, it doesn't occupy too much space in my purse.
  
• Color Payoff. The colors are really vibrant and pretty!
• Texture. Each hue is soft and smooth.
  
• Multipurpose. As said on the website, this palette can be used as an eyeshadow palette, blush or all over face color. The fact that it can be used for the eyes, cheeks and all over the face makes this a perfect travel buddy especially if you're headed for the beach!
  

Nay!

• Lasting power. Even with a good primer and base, the colors creased a little and rubbed off on my finger. (In other words, never ever touch your eyelid!)
  
• Pan size. The strips make it hard for me to swipe my eyeshadow brushes. I don't know if it's just me who's complaining about the size of the strips. Other bloggers didn't bother themselves with that. Haha!
  
• Color Options. They're all too shimmery to be used for a single look. I like to use a variety of finishes for my eyes, so using all the colors in the palette in one look is not for me.
  
• Color Variety. Terra Glimmer has two almost identical strips: the second and fourth strips.
• Not readily available. You'll have to scour multiply and ebay for Milani products. If you get lucky, you'll find them.
  

My Verdict
I think it's nice to have something in your purse that's good for a variety of uses, and for that, I'd say that the Milani Glimmer Stripes is a good addition to your purse and especially to your collection. I most probably won't be buying another palette since I already have two of this, but I surely will recommend this to those who don't want to purchase a lot of products.


Tips & Tricks (from the website)
Lightly swipe a color bar with an eye shadow sponge or brush and apply to the eyelids. With a kabuki type brush swipe across all bars and apply to cheeks, forehead, chin and/or nose.

Tips: When using each bar individual as an eye shadow, make sure to use lighter shades to highlight and medium & dark shades to contour.

For the swatches below, please do note that the ones above the line were swatched with a base (ELF Mineral Primer), and the ones below the line were swatched dry. Swatches are also numbered according the strips on the palette (from top to bottom). Number 6 is what you'll get when you swirl/swipe your brush or finger on all of the strips. (NOTE: My camera washed out the colors a little bit. The colors are more vibrant in real life than in the photos provided below)

Bronze Glimmer

Terra Glimmer

Aren't they pretty?!

See you in my next post!