I am the opposite of all of this.
The first snow of the season is challenging for me. Frankly any snow is challenging for me, but the first one always hurts the most. While everyone else thinks about curling up with a blanket and a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and watching as the delicate snow falls, I think about slushy sidewalks, dirty slush puddles at street corners, and subways steps covered in salt. I have always found it difficult to live in New York City, but living here during the winter, especially when it snows, is that much harder.
Everyone always talks about how snow is nice to look at but terrible to be in, and I guess I would agree with that. The thing about living in NYC, though, is that you always kind of have to be out in it just to get anywhere. If snow just fell and never stuck, I think I could be a bit more on board with it.
Oddly, looking at my makeup looks from the past week has brightened my spirits, and I think it's because of all the colors I used. I know I've mentioned this before, but when the weather is gray and I feel a little down, that's when I really amp up the color on my eyes. I've found that applying a shimmery bronzer during the winter also helps get me out of the funk. It might sound strange, but when I look at my face and it seems like it has a summer glow, it tricks my mind into thinking it's warm and sunny.
You'll see a lot of pink in my looks from the past week, and you'll probably see a lot of pink in my looks indefinitely because I just can't seem to stop reaching for it.
Here are six looks I did this week.
Look 1: City Colors Hint of Mint and Kat Von D Pastel Goth
Hint of Mint on the lid, Kat Von D Clementine and Meow blended into the crease, and BH Cosmetics Zodiac matte Gemini padded onto the outer corner.
Look 2: Viseart Bijoux Royale
3 on the inner and outer lid, 2 in the center of the lid, and 6 blended into the crease.
Look 3: Kat Von D Mi Vida Loca Remix
Destroyer on the lid. Anthem blended into the crease, and Hyperballad on the lower lash line. NYX Vivid Sapphire liquid liner.
Look 4: Colourpop My Little Pony
Firefly on the inner lid and inner corner, Princess Sparkle on the outer lid, Flutterbye blended into the crease as a transition shade, Minty blended into the crease, Applejack blended to deepen the crease, and Butterscotch on the brow bone.
Look 5: Kat Von D Saint and Sinner
Cathedral on the lid, BH Cosmetics Carli Bybel Deluxe 8 blended into the crease as a transition shade, Rosary blended into the crease, Worship padded onto the outer corner, and Baptism on the brow bone.
Look 6: Desert Dusk
Viseart Bijoux Royal 5 on the lid, Inglot peach and purple shades blended into the crease as transition shades, Lime Crime Venus Rebirth blended into the crease, Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts Empress blended above all crease colors, Lime Crime Venus Muse padded onto the outer corner, and Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts Crown on the inner corner and brow bone.
Look 1: City Colors Hint of Mint and Kat Von D Pastel Goth
(Please see this post if you have questions about why I own Pastel Goth when I have written an anti-haul post on the product.)
This is a repeat look from several months ago, and it is one of my favorites. I don't know why I originally thought to pair Pastel Goth with this Minty shade, but I am so happy that I did because it is such a fun, bright, and pretty look. I love thinking about the "journey" I have taken with eyeshadow because in the span of a year, I have gone from a person who only liked variations of gold and bronze looks to someone whose favorite palettes are very colorful. And this look I feel is a good one for people trying to transition into using more colors. These are certainly "odd" or "bold" colors when compared to shades of beige and brown, but I think the look can still pull a little neutral.
Look 2: Viseart Bijoux Royale
Status: Decluttered
Ugh, this look. Typically, I wouldn't have included this, but I wanted to because I talked about this palette in last week's looks post. I mentioned that in most Viseart palettes, I've found that there is one killer shade and the rest are mediocre, and the pink shade (shade 5) was it for this palette. It had been a long time since I had properly used Bijoux Royale, so I decided to play around with it, and this "look" was what happened. If you notice, I'm not even wearing mascara, and that's because this look was so bad and so uninspiring that I just wiped it all off my face. But I wanted to take these pictures to illustrate my complaint with this palette.
I don't know if my preferences have just changed or if I am in a place now where I can say "I don't like this hyped item that I spent a lot of money on" and not feel bad about it, but I have not been too impressed with Viseart lately. And I am decluttering Bijoux Royale.
It took me over a year, but I've decluttered four Viseart palettes at this point, and all have been the shimmer palettes (Bijoux Royale, Boheme Dream, Paris Nudes, and Sultry Muse). I just am not a person who likes a light wash of color. I can certainly see the appeal of these shadows if that was my preference, but it's not.
With this look, I packed shades 2 and 3 on my lid in so many layers, and it still looked like a sheer wash of color. Then I applied 6 in the crease, and I thought it just looked sloppy. I couldn't believe I spent $80 on this palette, when palettes that cost $16 perform much better. I was just going to declutter the entire palette, but then I thought about the shades that I do love, and I wanted them. So, I did a small depot.
This was the palette before:
And this is the palette without the shades I like:
It's funny because when I look at this palette now, I really don't like it. I am not drawn to it in any way, and I certainly wouldn't purchase it. I think this is a good lesson for me to continue to learn and one that hopefully inspires you, because sometimes when you remove just a few shades from a palette, it is no longer all that appealing.
The three shades I took out of this palette have now gone into my Desert Dusk duped palette (though at this point it's not so much of a dupe anymore), and I will show that in a bit.
This wasn't my favorite look I've ever done, but I had fun with it. I was so put off from using the Viseart palette that I just wanted to throw all the color on my face, and I did. I probably won't replicate this look in the future, but sometimes it's fun to just experiment and go with what you get. Using Mi Vida Loca Remix is always a treat, even when the look isn't my favorite.
Look 4: Colourpop My Little Pony
There's a lot about this palette that I like, but I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually becomes one that I declutter. This was given to me as a gift, and I just feel like I have most of these colors in my collection already (which is why I wasn't going to purchase it). I like the overall look I came up with, but I was disappointed in Minty. In the pan it looks to be a rich burgundy, but when applied to the eyes, it comes off as hot pink. I had to add Applejack just to tone down the vibrancy of the pink, but it still wasn't the color I was after. I thought the green on the lid would have been gorgeous with a nice burgundy, but with the hot pink, I didn't like it as much.
Look 5: Kat Von D Saint and Sinner
(Please see this post if you have questions about why I own Saint and Sinner when I have written an anti-haul post on the product.)
This palette continues to be difficult for me to use (again, which is a point I made in my anti-haul post), but I went into this look determined to make something pretty with it, and this ended up being my favorite look of the week. I feel like I have a new appreciation for this palette after doing this look, and I am excited to delve into it further to see what I can come up with.
The two things that were different about using this palette were that I pulled in a matte transition shade from elsewhere in my collection and I put a shimmer in my crease. I've talked about putting shimmers in the crease before, but it is something that I really enjoy. When I was first taught how to apply makeup at MAC, the artist told me to only put matte colors in my crease, and I left that day with Soft Brown, which found its way into my crease every time I wore makeup for years. Last year when I was doing my one week, one palette project, I had to put shimmers in the crease sometimes in order to use every shade in a given palette, and I found that it was something I really enjoyed.
There are technically seven matte shades in Saint and Sinner. Two are brow bone highlight shades (for me), and there is a black, dark brown, lighter brown, and orange. It is not likely that I will touch the black or dark brown shades very often, and I will only use the two cream shades as brow bone highlights. That leaves the lighter brown (which is still pretty dark) and orange as the only mattes in the palette. There are also three shades that are matte with glitter, and those are a taupe brown, deep chocolate brown, and lime green.
My problem with this palette and the problem I think a lot of other people are having is that it is lacking certain lighter matte shades that we are used to seeing in a palette that complement existing shades in the palette. Again, this is a reason why I wasn't going to buy this palette. But now that I have it, it is clear that it will require me to reach for other shadows in my collection, which I don't mind.
Look 6: Desert Dusk
As I mentioned above, the current state of this palette now looks less like a dupe for the Huda Beauty Desert Dusk palette and more like my own creation. But I've gotta say—I really love it. I reach for this palette several times a week, and I am always happy to do so. But I've made some recent changes.
This was the palette last week:
And this is it now:
I removed Coloured Raine Heir, Coloured Raine Moments, Makeup Geek Phantom, the Inglot brown, and the BH Cosmetics mauve shade, and I added the three pink/red colors from Viseart Bijoux Royale as well as Rebirth and Muse from the Lime Crime Venus palette.
The look I created this week is probably "boring" to you by this point since I do some variation of it a few times a week, but I can't help it. I just love it so much. I'm glad I made the choice to depot the Viseart shadows that I wanted and put them in here because I can already tell they are going to get a ton more use in this kind of a palette than they were in Bijoux Royale. I am much more inspired by this color scheme, and I'm happy the shadows I love will get used and be enjoyed.
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