Review: NYC IndividualEyes Custom Compact + tutorial

I happened accross this product while at CVS. I was there to pick up some sodas but of course I ended up wandering into the makeup section. What caught my eye about this compact was the fact that it contained a primer. Immediately I wanted to see if it worked so I ended up leaving CVS that day with two bottles of soda and this compact, all for under $8.00 (the compact was $4.99 by itself).

I purchased the one designed for blue eyes. It contained an eyeshadow base/primer, an "illuminator" which is meant to add highlight and "transform any dark shadow into a brand new color," a sponge tip applicator,  and four eyeshadows; a dark grey with blue sparkles, a bright lilac, a shimmery silver, and a light, shimmery lavender. The compact also contains suggestions on how to apply the colors.

When I tried out the colors I found them to be quite pigmented, but when I swatched them over the base and illuminator they didn't seem any different.  

Starting at the top going clockwise: without a primer, overtop the primer, and overtop the illuminator.

The colors applied quite well when packed on, however when blended they lost a lot of their brightness and there was quite a bit of fallout. The primer did not seem to do very much, it didn't really help the colors adhere or blend much better, it prevented some creasing but not all, after a couple hours of wear the colors were creasing some but probably not as badly as if I had gone without a primer entierly. The illuminator , although pretty for a brow or inner corner highlight base was very hard to blend.

I gave the recomended look from the package a try and this is how it turned out:

I was dissapointed with this product because I was really excited about trying it for some reason. Over all I give it a C. Even though the primer was not so great the quality overall was still pretty decent compared to most drugstore products.

I wanted to try out a more dramatic look using this palette, if you are interested check out the tutorial here:

or check it out on my youtube channel: you.ube.com/JaciMischelle

Review: NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder + Brow Tutorial

Recently I have become obsessed with eyebrows and eyebrow products. Strong brows seem to be back in fashon nowadays and having well groomed and defined brows can be key to looking put together and pulling off dramatic looks.
Unfortunately most of the quality eyebrow products I have seen around are relatively pricey.Benefit Brow Zings, the Urban Decay Brow Box and the Too-Faced Brow Envy all sell for around $30.00 and the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Kit is a whopping $65.00. So henceforth I began my quest to find an affordable, good quality eyebrow kit.
Today I present the NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder "For Those Movie Star Brows."

I picked this product up at Ulta for only $5.99. It comes in six shades, blonde, auburn/red, taupe/ash, brunette, dark brown/brown, and black/grey. I bought the dark brown/brown.

The kit contains one wax cake, two shades of  pressed powders, and an angled brush and a spoolie (a clean mascara wand). 
From what I can tell the wax works really well, hours later my brows were still in place and the powders are very well pigmented.

The only thing I didn't like about this product is that the brushes were so short that they were almost impossible to use. Also, it didn't contain any instructions on how to use the product for very new beginners like most of the other more expensive alternatives do.
Since there isn't a how-to on the packaging I decided to provide a tutorial of my own.

 This is how my brows looked to begin with, make sure that they are well trimmed and plucked.

The first step is to use the spoolie to brush the brow hairs up towards the temples.

 Next, dip the angled brush into the wax cake and use it to coat the brow hairs and set them into place. Keep going in the upward direction towards the temples.

Since my brow tails are very sparse and don't grow far enough I apply a small amount of wax just past my brow extending the tail.

To figure out where your brow tail is supposed to end use a brush or pencil and line up the angle from the corner of your nose to the outer corner of your eye, extending towards your brows. Where the brush or pencil is marks where your brow tail should end.

After applying the wax, coat the angled brush in the powders. use a mixture of the two shades to get a perfect match. I ended up using more of the darker shade. Brush onto the brows over the wax, keeping with the upward strokes. If you need to extend your tail, continue past the brow onto where you applied the wax, the wax will help the powders to adhere to you skin.
Now take the time to clean up any mistakes with a makeup wipe.

Finally, grab the spoolie again and use it to blend out the brow. This will help even out any areas that you may have applied too much wax or too dark powder.It will also blend out the brow and make it look much more natural.

This is the final product of my brow technique. I really like doing my brows this way because they don't end up looking too overdrawn but still look polished and tamed.  

MSDriftedSW is giving away a Naked Palette!!

How awesome is this?
This much coveted palette has been sold out pretty much since it hit shelves, somehow this lucky lady managed to get her hands on two of them and she is giving one away!
The palette contains a mixture of matte and shimmer(mainly shimmer) neutral shades along with a double sided eye pencil and a mini-primer potion.

I am personally so excited about this! If you want to enter all the details are on her blog: http://msdriftedsw.blogspot.com/2011/03/giveaway-urban-decay-naked-palette.html

Good Luck Everybody!!

Jessie J inspired look

I love Jessie J, her style and her makeup. I recently watched a VEVO Style video with Jessie J where they filmed her going shopping at this vintage store, talking about her personal style, ect. In the video she was wearing a makeup look that was slightly different from the ones she normally has on (winged liner, spiky lashes...) and seeing it really inspired me to create a look based on her makeup.

• Start out with primed lids. Then apply a black base to the lid, I used NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Black Bean. Then blend out into the crease with a brush or your finger.

• Next, using a paddle brush apply a silver eyeshadow to the inner 2/3 of the lid. I used Evil Shades Silver Bullet.


• Then using a small crease brush apply a matte black eyeshadow to the outer V and the crease. I used the black from my 88 pallete.

• Now use a matte skin-toned eyeshadow on a flat topped brush to clean up and blend above the black. I used MAC Blanc Type.

• Then using the matte black and flat liner brush blend eyeshadow into the lower lashline.


• Now use a white base or eyliner on the inner corner and tear duct area, blend out with either a brush or your finger. I used NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk.


• Then using a small brush apply a light silver eyeshadow on top of the white base and over the black under the lower lashline. I used the silver color from the Boyfriends Jeans duo from Essence.

• Apply eyeliner to the waterlines (I used white because I have very small eyes but you can use black if you want), black liquid or gel liner to the upper lashline, and a coat of mascara.

• Now apply false lashes. In the video I saw Jessie was wearing very full lashes, these ones were the closest I had. I used #28 Salon Perfect.


• I have noticed that Jessie always seems to wear very red blush that is placed almost as a contour. Because I didn't have anything close to the color she wore for blush I just mixed three of the red colors from my 88 pallete and applied them with an angled brush right along the bottom edge of my cheekbones and blended very well.

• For the lips I used a red lipliner to line and then fill in my lips.

Product Review: Denim Wanted! from essence

I am constantly on the look out for inexpensive, quality makeup so when I stumbled accross this new collection by Essence while in Ulta last week I had to give the products a try. I have never used anything by Essence so I was a little skeptical but they had a few of the eyeshadows out for swatching and when I tried them I saw they had amazing color payoff. I  was so excited especially when I found out that everything was under $3.00. I bought two of the eyeshadow duos and one of the gel liners.

The first product I tried was "Love My Jeans" eyeshadow duo,  it contains a ballet pink and light silver-grey.

When first swatched the color payoff is decent and the texture is very nice and soft. However as you can see from the pictures they are not as pigmented as I had first hoped.

with flash

without flash

The next duo I tried was "My Boyfriend's Jeans", it contains a dark, almost navy purple and a silver. These shadows had better color payoff than did the first duo and also had a very soft, blendable texture.

with flash

without flash

The other product I purchased was one of the gel eyeliners in "Vintage Style", its a basic black. The gel eyeliner seemed a little too hard and the brush provided was a little too soft. However once I started to work with the product a bit more it seemed to warm up and go on a lot easier, it seemed to be quite long-wearing as well.

with flash

without flash

I did a quick look using the Boyfriend's Jeans duo and the gel liner to try the products out a little more.

The only major problem I experienced was that the eyeshadows were almost too soft and blendable, they tend to blend and blend and its hard to get the color to concentrate but overall I think they were a good buy for the price. The gel liner wasn't amazing and I actually think that the one by Maybelline is better (its about 7-8 dollars) but again, for the price not bad at all ( I will probably continue using this gel liner and wait until its used up to buy a different kind).

Overall I have to give this collection a B -

I wasn't super impressed but I am glad I bought these products and tried them out, I plan on continuting to use them but I'll probably test out something new next time.