Best Beautymarked? & Tropez Maui Mauve

While going through my collection, I noticed a few similarities.. especially from one of my favorite eyeshadows, MAC Beautymarked. I prefer using this instead of black (ie: Carbon) because it's just.. less harsh.

NYX 143 Eggplant

MAC Beautymarked

*picture is overall slightly warmer than in real life

Tropez 39310 Maui Mauve

* only the top right shade was swatched

Stila Charmed EyeShadow Palette

* only the bottom right shade was swatched

**gift from Catherine (love!)

Kanebo KATE PU-1

* left three shades were swatched

N1 - not sure why I swatched this.. NYX Alaska

N2 - NYX Plum

M - MAC Beautymarked

K - *whoops, mislabeled!* Stila

T - Tropez

K - Kate.. three purple shades along the bottom left

The shades I really wanted to compare..

MAC Beautymarked

-VERSUS-

Stila Charmed Eye Palette

-VERSUS-

Tropez Maui Mauve

* in the same order as the picture above. they all look remarkably similar, no?

Glitter: MAC wins out, this shade almost looks duo-toned instead of black (I think they said maroon? on the MAC site) with glitter. Next is Stila, then Tropez.

Pigmentation: Tropez almost looks like it's the best.. look how dark the swatch is! One swipe, mind you. I think I had to swipe MAC twice. Stila is somewhere in the middle.

Texture: Tropez definitely feels a bit more gritty in comparison to Stila and MAC (both about the same smoothness).

Application: I wiped my fingers onto the tissue paper.. and MAC actually won out! Interesting.. so I guess Tropez is more powdery (sort of like KATE)?

Packaging: MAC wins in terms of a single eyeshadow being put into a 15-palette.. by itself, your collection can get kind of cluttered. Tropez is next, since it's slightly more sturdy-feeling plastic than the cardboard-esque packaging that Stila is in.

Overall, I think MAC Beautymarked is actually.. the best Beautymarked there is!

UNLESS we're talking about price/value!

In terms of price and value, the Stila palette was $28USD for 4 shadows ($7 per eyeshadow), the single MAC eyeshadow is $14USD. The Tropez palette, I'm actually not sure about the price since it was given to me as a present.. but it can be found at drugstores, and I can't imagine that it costs more than $8-10USD, plus you get 6 shadows. I think Tropez definitely wins out in this category; then Stila, then MAC.

In my own personal collection, I don't think the Tropez palette stands out enough for me to want to keep it (in efforts of uncluttering my collection).

The lovely looking cranberry shade is actually much more brown than I would've imagined, making it more of a mahogany--though it does have some very pretty silver microglitter. And the pretty peachy-champagne shade can be pretty easily duped (though not EXACTLY.. Tropez's shade is slightly more pink) by Wet and Wild "Fine Wink".

I swatched the Stila shade to show you what I sort of wanted the Tropez shade to look like--except darker, of course.

As for the lilac and salmon-esque pink in the Tropez palette.. I don't see myself reaching for those colors very often (as I'm not a big pink fan). BUT, I do have to say that this certain pink in the Tropez palette tempts me.. hahaha.

Overall, the Tropez "Maui Mauve" palette is a GREAT buy if you're starting your kit or you don't have like colors.. but for me, I think this is a pretty clear one to be phased out--check for it on my blogsale (will be updated soon)!

Swatches and Comparisons

This is a bunch of swatches.. comparisons.. and basically, how I decide what palette to keep and what to let go :P

Lancome Color Design Sensational Effects EyeShadow

*gifted from Yasumi.. love!*

I'm not exactly sure how to read the colors on the back.. SO.. bear with me.

Filigree (shimmer) - what I imagine in my head of MAC Ricepaper.. yellow-beige

Mannequin (shimmer) - warm toned taupe?

Strut (intense) - blue/green awesomeness

Lezard (matte) - slightly-warm/red brown.. from a distance it looks sort of plum-y.

Bronze Glow (blush) - cool toned peach with gold flecks

The colors are slightly off and are NOT a true representation of their actual color.. the blue has a blue-green duochrome and otherwise I think this entire picture is a tad warm.. or magenta-ish (my current lightbulb in my lamp tends to run a little green).

Here's the gigantic comparison chart! Er, tissue paper..

Filigree & Mannequin -VERSUS- Rimmel 002 Smokey Brun

Top two are Rimmel, bottom two are Lancome

I couldn't decide between the two palettes at this point.. the colors that are similar are really totally different. If I had to choose two colors, I would probably choose the bottom left Lancome and the top right Rimmel.. though the bottom left Lancome does remind me of coffee or hot chocolate :P

Lezard -VERSUS- Rimmel

Lezard (bottom brown) is warmer than the Rimmel, and even at a distance, sort of plummy.. PLUS the Lancome doesn't have silver glitter, which makes it the winner between the two (IMO).

Strut -VERSUS- KATE

These colors are ssoooooo different, I don't even know why I swatched the two. I guess they're the two MOST similar colors in my collection as far as dark greens go. Kate is obviously much more blackish with green glitter while Strut has this awesome blue-green duotone. I would love both as nail polish colors, really.. hahah. As for on my eyes, I think Lancome wins just because it looks so cool :P plus it doesn't have glitter!

KATE -VERSUS- Majolook

These two colors are preeeeetty darn similar.. Kate has silver glitter while MM is just shimmer. MM wins out in texture.. and while Kate does pop a little more, I'm not a fan of fall-out glitter (on the off-hand chance of it). In the picture, Kate also looks a bit warmer though they look aboooout the same when it's sitting next to me on the tissue paper. MM it is.

Bronze Glow -VERSUS- Bourjois Peche blusher

I muuuuuch prefer the texture of Bronze Glow over Peche.. and while Peche looks gorgeous, I feel like I have to dig in my brush to get enough color out, which is bad for my brushes. The two colors are pretty far apart, though I like the brown-tone to Bronze Glow. I just swatched MAC's Margin and all three colors are fairly different. Based on texture, I would blogsale the Bourjois but by color, I'd have to keep them all.

So.. I phased out the Kate green gradation palette :P and failed at getting rid of another blush. And this totally makes me debate between the Rimmel and the Lancome palettes.. though I maaaay let go of the Rimmel, just because the Lancome bluegreen is way more awesome than four neutral shades. I haven't tried out the Lancome so we'll see if I like the warmer shades on my lids :P

Rimmel 002 and Kate/MM comparison

*This is a scheduled post*

SWATCH: Rimmel "Smokey Brun 002"

As I described in my last post, this is definitely my "go to" palette. The texture isn't all that great.. I feel like I sort of have to dig in my brush to get enough color for some of the lighter shades (but hey, I'm NC37). The dark brown goes on easily enough, as does the lightest shade. I would describe the colors as (lightest to darkest): A light yellow/gold-ed out white (what I imagine MAC's Ricepaper to look like--though I don't have it for comparison), a beige-champagne, copper and a brownie (food) cool-toned brown. The darkest brown doesn't show up very well in this swatch.. scroll down a little bit to see a better color representation.

Here, I swatched them with my other brow-highlight shades:

Top L-->R: Wet and Wild "Fine Wink", MAC Shroom (go-to brow h-light color), MAC Phloof

Bottom L-->R: Rimmel eyeshadows

You can see that they're all really quite different.. though "Fine Wink" and "Phloof" are sort of similar, except for "Phloof" has more silver shimmer to it and is lighter.. and "Fine Wink" has more traces of pink. These colors really aren't that dark.. I didn't brighten the photo in Photoshop because I wanted to really see the color tone difference that you couldn't normally see if the colors were brighter and more washed-out.

L-->R: Rimmel vs MAC "Handwritten"

As evidenced, "Handwritten" is a much warmer (reddish?) shade of brown than Rimmel (which also contains some silver glitter). Texture-wise, I prefer MAC over Rimmel though if you're on a budget (like me), this palette will be a great addition and it's perfect for every day wear, though you could totally use more of the dark brown to smoke out your look for night time!

KATE vs MAJOLOOK

The darkest blue shade on both are pretty good dupes for each other. The Kate (K1) blue glitter is much more noticeable than the one in the MM (M).. Plus I think the Kate glitter is slightly larger. The Kate blue looks slightly more blackish while the MM looks slightly more grey-toned. I'm not sure why I swatched (K2) which is the second darkest shade in the palette.. but there you go, hahaha. I would loooooove a nail polish that looked like K1!

KATE: There's definitely your blue spectrum in this one palette, and it makes it very easy to grab ONE palette and go, especially with you lucky gals who can use 5 colors in one look and have it ALL show (grumbles a bit about having monolids--not that there's ANYthing wrong with that!). The texture of these shadows is smooth but a little more powdery.. I keep feeling like I would have a bunch of fall out, but I don't. The fact that there's a cream shadow on the rightmost side kind of annoys me, since I don't tend to use cream shadows, but it's not enough to turn me away from using the palette. All of the shadows have some glitter in them.

MM: This has a nice variety of colors that I wouldn't normally think to put together. Fuzkittie made a great "vintage" look using just this palette--definitely one of the main reasons why I bough it in the first place. All of the shadows are shimmery and have this amazing buttery-soft texture to them. The issue I have is whenever I use MM palettes, they seem to fade like crazy on me! Maybe I just need to use a better base or I have super oily lids, who knows; I haven't heard many complaints about that from other people.

OVERALL: Even though I think the Kate palette is slightly more pigmented than the MM one, I find myself reaching for the MM palette more often.. mostly because of the color variety, and the fact that I don't tend to do all-blue EOTD's. I find myself hard-pressed whenever I think about putting EITHER of them up on blogsale though..

Love Pack + BB cream comparison

first off.. i want to say.. THANK YOU LADIES SO MUCH! you're all so helpful and AMAZING. there are so many different products it's hard to choose where to start off from.. probably what costs least ;) haha! NYX concealer pots and kevin beautymaker aqua eyes, here i come! if i won the lottery, you guys would definitely be getting huge love packs. one day, i swear! :P and if you didn't comment on the last post, i was asking about foundations/concealers (please respond!).

ah.. also, if someone's ordering from G-MARKET anytime soon, please let me know! i want to get the castledew waterdrop foundation.. but the shipping costs so darn much :(

aaaand.. does anyone know about how the NYX shades compare to MAC? katie recommended glow or medium for me.. HMM.. we'll see :3 i could just order like.. 4.. then sell the ones that don't match. LOL. 

anywhooooooo.. 

the amazing jenn (beautymoogle) offered to send me some bb cream samples.. and i couldn't resist! here are some of my initial thoughts on them along w/ my skinfood mushroom bb.. AFTER i show off what i got :) hehehee. 

mmmm goodies! i don't know what the greentea-cracker thing was but it's gonnneeeee. and i had to fend the bf off the nerds. MINE! hahaha.

FOUR bb samples! 

not only that but i got samples of a BUNCH of other things.. some that were on my wishlist! i can't wait to try the korres wild rose thing xDD thankyousomuch!

L-R: skinfood mushroom, liole, liole waterdrop, l'egere waterdrop, hanskin gold

all smeared out.. you can see SLIGHT differences but it's basically the same, haha. i should've drawn borders or something. ah, well.. too late :P

SKINFOOD MUSHROOM

- initial color thoughts: it's much more pink in comparison.

- scent: more of a.. hmm.. herbal scent? compared to the other bb's at least. 

- consistency: creamy.

LIOLE

- initial color thoughts: looks much like my mushroom bb.. but more neutral.

- scent: much lighter scent.. of soap.

- consistency: creamy.

LIOLE WATERDROP

- initial color thoughts: looks much like my mushroom bb.. 

- scent: reminds me of.. soap. more of a floral scent (like aloe bb cream). stronger than liole.

- consistency: creamy.. but a little more watery than the other ones.

HANSKIN GOLD

- initial color thoughts:

- scent: much lighter scent.. like when you wash your hands, but 5 minutes after. LOL. 

- consistency: what struck me was all of the other bb's spread around in the jar (in the mail).. but this one pretty much stayed in the same spot LOL. so, pre-spread.. i'm going to say this is much thicker. very creamy still.

L'EGERE WATERDROP

- initial color thoughts: woww it's dark! much darker than the other bb's. it also has some small glitter in it?

- scent: also a very soapy smell.. stronger than liole.

- consistency: very watery! it looks like it has bubbles.. like it oxidized?

OVERALL:

they all seem to lighten my skintone a little when i look at my hand directly under light. a few minutes later though, and they seem to sink more into my skin and they don't look so unnatural. l'egere waterdrop is definitely the only one with sparkles in it, though they're really small specks so it's not too annoying, but we'll see how it is on my face xD they all help with my skin yellowness and hide the veins on the back of my hand.

i can't wait to try all of these on my face! be prepared to see lots of my face in the next few days :) hehee. 

thank you so much jenn! you're amazing!! <3

** edit

MY BUDDY HANA IS HAVING A BLOGSALE! mostly accessories, but you should definitely go check it out! sell her MOTOSAYS sent ya ;)