Posts Tagged ‘urban decay’
Santa had the Urban Decay Mariposa palette wrapped up for me under the tree. I’ve been playing with the shades for the past couple of weeks and am enjoying them immensely! My favorite of the ten shades (at least so far) has to be Money – a delightful (and unusual) gunmetal green. I’ve never owned a shade quite like this before.
I’ll be taking more photos and will have a full review for you in the next few days. In the meantime, here’s a quick peek at the palette.
Ten shadows are packaged in a silver tin, embossed with the Urban Decay logo and a beautiful butterfly on the lid.
Money and Haight are blowing me away!
❤Liz
©MyBeautyBlackBook.com All rights reserved. No part of this post (including the photos which I obsess over in a most ridiculous way) may be reproduced without my okay…okay?
Reason #10: You can treat yourself to that new daylight mirror you’ve always wanted – these shadows are in the lights on category.
Reason #9: Now that the original Naked palette buzz has dwindled, you can join in on the Naked 2 party.
Reason #8: Where else can you find twelve pretty taupe shadow maidens all in a row who come with Good Karma?
Reason #7: If you order from Sephora, you’ll get free shipping.
Reason #6: You don’t need to be nervous, just imagine your audience in their underwear…oops, wrong post!
Reason #5: Nudity while applying is not required…but not discouraged.
Reason #4: With over 6,000 Naked 2 video tutorials on YouTube you’re bound to find at least a handful of new looks to try.
Reason #3: You’ve already broken your buy no more shadows resolution so what’s one more palette?
Reason #2: For $50 you can get half baked, a booty call, busted, and then blackout.
Reason #1 to Get Naked (again) with Urban Decay: You can stop repeatedly asking your twitter friends if you need it and just get it already!
Hope my list made you giggle at least once today. 
Naked 2 is a beautiful palette consisting of 3 matte, 1 shimmery metallic, 1 shimmery glitter and 7 shimmery finish shadows. Let me show you some photos and share my thoughts about the palette…
Twelve glorious taupe shades are housed in an art-school inspired tin box with hinged lid and a full size mirror inside. As an artist myself, I was drawn to the idea behind the packaging concept.
The palette snaps closed (see the cut out slits on the left and the right? The lid locks into place there. I haven’t had any trouble closing the palette but over time, it may require some slight finagling to shut completely. Also included is a double-ended Good Karma brush. The brush wand is of a nice weight and the brushes themselves are…just okay.
Missing are the pencils we’re accustomed to getting from Urban Decay palettes. Instead, the Naked2 palette comes with a double-ended brush and a Lip Junkie lip gloss in Naked (a light nude-pink).
Left to Right: Foxy (matte), Half Baked (shimmer), Booty Call (shimmer), Chopper (shimmer with silver micro glitter).
Left to Right: Tease (my favorite shade in the palette is a matte), Snakebite (shimmer with a metallic finish), Suspect (my second favorite shade is a shimmer finish)
Left to Right: Pistol (shimmer), Verve (shimmer), YDK (shimmery metallic), Busted (shimmer), Blackout (matte…and a good one too!).
LLeft to Right: Foxy (matte), Half Baked (shimmer), Booty Call (shimmer), Chopper (shimmer with silver micro glitter), Tease (my favorite shade in the palette is a matte), Snakebite (shimmer with a metallic finish). Note: Photos taken indoors.
Left to Right: Suspect (my second favorite shade is a shimmer finish), Pistol (shimmer), Verve (shimmer), YDK (shimmery metallic), Busted (shimmer), Blackout (matte…and a good one too!). Note: Photos taken indoors.
Urban Decay shadows are some of the best I own and I am a huge fan of the Naked palette series. If you like taupe (and don’t mind a mostly shimmery eye palette) then you’ll love the range of light to medium beige, and gray (and bronze) taupe shadows in this palette.
Availability: urbandecay.com, sephora.com. Sephora and Ulta are expected to have the palette in-stores sometime the end of January 2012.
Price: $50US, 12 shadows at .05oz/each
4/5 Smooches: Beautiful shadows and a fantastic value (UD sells their .05 single shadows for $17 each and you get 12 in this palette for about $4.16 each).
So…will you be getting Naked?
❤Liz
©MyBeautyBlackBook.com All rights reserved. No part of this post (including the photos which I obsess over in a most ridiculous way) may be reproduced without my okay…okay?
Happy Monday!
I’m especially excited this week as I plan on making a big move. Well, big is relative I suppose but for me, the move makes sense and feels pretty major.
After hauling product from room to room to accommodate the various stages of the beauty product photograph and testing assembly line, I decided to streamline my process – at least a little – and move my vanity into my studio!
It will take some rearranging but with hubby’s muscle and my creative eye, no problemo.
My hope is to relocate sometime this week, next week at the latest. I’ll be sure to share photos of my studio along with a glimpse into how I store my beauties. Like these…
Nice way to start the week don’t you agree?
Estée Lauder came out with a Michael Kors collection and bag. I picked up the silver bag at Nordstrom (which I’m loving) and here’s a peek at the color collection. The shades are more pale than I care for but still very pretty. The gunmetal bag (available at Macy’s) included the prettiest color collection of the bunch.
There’s my MAC Flamingo lipstick…le swoon. Santa had this Urban Decay palette all wrapped up for me under the tree.
I wanted to share a close up of the Mariposa (butterfly) palette with you. Even the brush that’s included features pretty purple butterflies. Urban Decay makes some of the most pigmented, creamy shadows and this palette is no exception.
I haven’t played with false lashes in a while so this week, it’s lashapalooza! By the way, the Estée Lauder Illuminating Powder Gelée in Topaz Chameleon is gorgeous – much more wearable than I originally expected! I’ll post a full review this week.
Vanity Table available at Pier One Imports
Vanity Table Lights available at Vanity Girl Hollywood
Have a beauty filled week!
❤Liz
©MyBeautyBlackBook.com All rights reserved. No part of this post (including the photos which I obsess over in a most ridiculous way) may be reproduced without my okay…okay?
I was poking around the Sephora site today and noticed a $20 off sale on the Urban Decay Book of Shadows IV palette. That is an incredibly good deal for a gorgeous palette.
Although I haven’t formally reviewed it for you (I featured it on my Vanity post a while back) let me just say that the shadows are superb…Urban Decay always knows how to make my peepers pop!
The packaging is quite pretty with a lovely butterfly motif but it’s not especially practical for travel and is bulky to store. I do appreciate the technology element in the makeup tutorials provided but I can just as easily get that elsewhere.
At now $44 for the entire sixteen shadow palette (that’s $2.75 per shadow versus $4.00 per shadow at the original price of $64), it’s a pretty good deal regardless.
I’m now off to grab a bite to eat. Healthy lunch or vacation meal…decisions, decisions.
Available: Sephora.com (use promo code EXTRA at check out)
Price: $44US
❤Liz
It’s always funny to me how I fret over getting someone just the right gift. I know it’s the thought that counts yet I catch myself sweating over somehow making a mistake. Nuts!
As I was wrapping a gift for one of the toughest people to shop for on my holiday list, I had thoughts like “they’ll think it’s not nice enough,” “they’ll think it’s not expensive enough” (no joshing!), “I could have done so much better.” Then it occurred to me that what the person does or doesn’t think of my gift selection isn’t the point at all. Truth be told, they’d love anything I stuck in a box or a bag because they love me…not what I buy them. The point was how I was viewing myself…
So as I sat at my vanity I realized the “not enough” issue is one of worth – how worthy I believe I am, just as I am. And sometimes, as evolved, grounded and sure as I know myself to be, I slip up and forget. I forget that who I am and what I do is more than good enough…actually, it’s just right.
My makeup delights…
It’s a Chanel sort of week! These are a couple of pieces from the Chanel Spring 2012 collection (Blush Horizon de Chanel Soft Glow Blush and Les 4 Ombres in Eclosion). I predict the blush to be a sell out! I also pulled out my MAC highlight powder, Chez Chez Lame (from the 2010 Cham-pale collection).
These Chanel polishes are also from the spring 2012 collection: April, June, May. My SA tells me we can expect to see the shade June in magazines – she predicts this creamy melon will fly off shelves (I don’t disagree).
I’ve already reviewed the Nine to Five palette from the Tarte Puttin’ on the Glitz holiday collection (love!). If you like soft pink glosses with opacity (but not too much) give this Smashbox gloss in Pout a try. I’ve been reaching for this gloss a lot lately.
Nope, the Urban Decay Naked2 palette hasn’t left my vanity…it’s too good to put away! I meant to mention that my new favorite mascara combo is Dior Iconic (a curling mascara) with Dior Extase (a volume and lengthening mascara) on top – talk about WOW lashes.
I wrote a poem to include as a gift for someone very dear to me. It took me about ten minutes to put thoughts to paper. I read and re-read it looking for ways to make it better. I even let it simmer overnight. You know what…I couldn’t find a darned thing wrong with it! Who says you can’t get back up when you fall.
Vanity Table available at Pier One Imports
Vanity Table Lights available at Vanity Girl Hollywood
Have a beauty filled holiday week!
❤Liz
©MyBeautyBlackBook.com All rights reserved. No part of this post (including the photos which I obsess over in a most ridiculous way) may be reproduced without my okay…okay?
These past few days I’ve been thinking a lot about the change in seasons. Some associate the changes we experience in life with the change in seasons summing up where we’re at as the spring, summer or autumn of our lives. I get it. But I associate the changes I experience in my life as chapters in a book.
Probably because I enjoy reading and writing so much I view the ups, downs and lateral moves as new chapters. I don’t know about you but I much prefer this association because to refer to this time in my life as Autumn has such a definitive beginning and end. My life (at least so far) has been filled with a myriad of surprises and I never know what’s around the next corner – a finish line or a new beginning.
After years of falling, getting up and then falling some more, I’ve grown to appreciate and embrace the uncertainty. The last couple of chapters I’ve written and perhaps the next several are less about clinging to my expectations but about being open to the unfolding of things. I’ve fought like a boxer in a ring to knock out my inner opponent only to discover that the magic really happens when I put down the gloves and let go.
And as i sit in front of my vanity, I do pretty much the same…I let go of trying to create or recreate a look in a precise way and instead, follow where the brush strokes take me…
My vanity is brimming with neutrals this week!
I’m comparing the original Urban Decay NAKED and NAKED 2 palettes. So far, I adore them both!
The tiny Le Metier polishes are precious. The colors are fantastic and as cute as the bottles are I find them too tiny to handle but it doesn’t stop me from enjoying them My trusty Glamcor brush has to be one of my favorite brushes in my collection. And speaking of favorites, you usually see this Sue Devitt primer on my vanity. I prefer a hydrating primer and this is one of my top two favorites. This Bond No9 Andy Warhol fragrance has to be one of my most coveted fragrance treasures.
Do you own an iPhone? If you do, keep the box it comes in and use it to store your lipsticks. These boxes are very well made. I’ve used mine to hold some of my MAC lipsticks. For the past couple of months, I’ve gone back and forth over what to pick up from Le Metier de Beaute. But when I saw this palette, Antiquité Poupée Kaleidoscope, I knew this had to be my first color purchase (aside from those adorable polishes). I didn’t just stop there though and also picked up a blush in Rumor. Photos and swatches to come.
I got my hands on another Bond No 9 fragrance (sample), I Love NY for Her. And can I say, this gal is in love! Because my skin is a little drier than usual I’ve been enjoying cream face products like this Sue Devitt cream bronzer. I own the Chanel Bronze Universelle and like it very much but it doesn’t compare to the color and blendability of my Sue Devitt bronzer. I’ll do a review on this soon because I think you’d really like this one. More neutrals from Bobbi Brown and my Anastasia palette – this would make terrific stocking stuffer by the way.
It’s not like me to select such a neutral array of products for an entire week but I’m going with the flow because my choices in makeup are sometimes as unpredictable as the chapters of my soul…
Vanity Table available at Pier One Imports
Vanity Table Lights available at Vanity Girl Hollywood
Have a beauty filled week!
❤Liz
©MyBeautyBlackBook.com All rights reserved. No part of this post (including the photos which I obsess over in a most ridiculous way) may be reproduced without my okay…okay?
So I’m all tucked into bed with pups close by and I’m doing my usual nighttime ritual..checking out blogs and news sites on my iPhone (thanks to Steve Jobs, may he RIP).
Lo and behold if I didn’t read (on Urban Decays Facebook page) that Urban Decay is launching the Naked Palette 2!
The original Naked palette has to be one of my favorite nude palettes. In fact, it went with me on a recent trip to visit the folks in Oregon…I didn’t need another eye shadow or liner (the shadows make great liners when used wet).
No news yet on price points but I did “borrow” the image below from Urban Decay. These peek-a-boo glimpses of new products get me all revved up!
Naked Part Deux…
Be sure to subscribe to my blog because you can bet I’ll be first in line for this one when it’s released and will share photos, swatches, the works. You can also sign up on Urban Decay’s website for the official announcement coming on December 1st.
Okay, now that I’ve let you know, I can go back to bed.
Good night!
❤Liz