Weekly Looks

As I mentioned in my last post, I have even more recent looks, so for those who missed these posts, I hope you enjoy the onslaught of them. My last post was a collection of looks I had done recently while trying to rediscover my collection. And these looks are ones that I wore last week, while, again, attempting to rediscover my collection.

Here are those looks:

Look 1: Yellow gold and matte purple

Lid: Shimmery yellow gold

Transition: Matte cool brown

Crease: Matte purple

Brow bone: Matte cream

Inner corner: Shimmery white

Lower lash line: Matte purple

I've done this look before, but with different shadows, and the look came out basically the same. I like the look, but I think it can be easily recreated with a multitude of shadows. 

Look 2: Fyrinnae It Beautifies! 

Base: Pixie Epoxy

Lid: It Beautifies! 

Transition: Viseart warm brown matte

Crease: Inglot warm brown matte

Brow bone: Viseart matte white

Inner Corner: Make Up For Ever Pearl

Lower lash line: Inglot warm brown matte

Fyrinnae It Beautifies! is hands-down one of my favorite eyeshadows that I own. It is so perfect and simple and beautiful, and the way it shines when the light hits it is truly special. This is one of my top recommendations for a Fyrinnae shadow.

Look 3: Anastasia Beverly Hills Subculture

Lid: Electric (applied wet)

Transition: Dawn

Crease: Destiny

Outer corner: Untamed

Brow bone: Wet N Wild Brulee

Right before I left New York, I was gifted this palette, which made me laugh a bit since there was so much drama surrounding it. I've used it a handful of times since, and I do like the color scheme, but as others have noted, it is hard to work with. I liked this look and thought it was pretty, but I think I can create better looks with other items in my collection (see immediately below). 

Look 4: Fyrinnae Abandoned Hotel and Viseart Dark Matte

Base: Pixie Epoxy

Lid: Abandoned Hotel

Crease: Viseart 7

Defined crease: Viseart 12

Doing the Subculture look made me want to do more green looks, so I turned to one of my favorite green shadows, Fyrinnae Abandoned Hotel. I then paired it with my workhorse palette, Viseart Dark Matte, and I think the look came out beautifully. When compared to the look from ABH, I think this one is much more vibrant and beautiful. It was also easier to apply. 

Look 5: Pat McGrath Labs Mothership Subliminal Platinum Bronze 

Lid: Smoke and Mirrors

Crease: MAC Quarry

Outer corner: Telepathic Taupe 

Brow bone: Wet N Wild Brulee

Lower lash line: Smoke and Mirrors

I raved about the Pat McGrath Mothership IV palette in my last post, but I don't think I like this one very much. This look came out so dull, and I feel like I could have easily created it with other colors in my collection. I felt so bad about it, in fact, that I used the palette the next day to see if maybe I would like it more...

Look 6: Pat McGrath Labs Mothership Subliminal Platinum Bronze 

Lid: Platinize

Crease: Milani Sweet as Honey

Inner corner: Sextrovert

Brow bone: Can't Pink Straight

Lower lash line: Platinize

... and I don't. Of course, this is a lovely bronze/gold shadow, but it's not any nicer than what I already own. I might try to use the other shadows in the palette that I haven't used yet, but based on swatches, they don't look promising. This might be a palette that I declutter in my upcoming purge. 

Favorite look: Fyrinnae Abandoned Hotel and Viseart Dark Matte

This was definitely my favorite look this week because the colors blended well and really stood out. It felt like a strong eye look, but also one that wasn't too loud. I also enjoyed the color combination as I've been gravitating toward olive, mustard, and orange tones. 

Least favorite look: Pat McGrath Labs Mothership Subliminal Platinum Bronze – Smoke and Mirrors

I hate to say that a product from Pat McGrath was my least favorite of the week (especially in a category that includes ABH Subculture), but it's true. I just really did not like this look at all, and I was really disappointed with the lid shade. It was pretty, but just not special like I have come to expect from Pat McGrath. 

Instagram: @antihaulblog

Weekend Looks: Notoriously Morbid and Shiro Cosmetics

This was an unintentional weekend of potential dupes. Something that I've found with some of these indie duochrome shadows is that it is kind of difficult to figure out what the color will be based on what it looks like in the pot. I wasn't anticipating either of these shadows to look like what they did, and I certainly didn't think the colors might be similar to each other. 

Here are the looks I did this weekend. 

Look 1: Notoriously Morbid Chaos Reigns

Chaos Reigns on the lid (over Pixie Epoxy), Viseart Dark Matte 5 blended into the crease, and Viseart Dark Matte 9 padded onto the outer corner.

Look 2: Shiro Cosmetics I Understood That Reference

I Understood That Reference on the lid (over Pixie Epoxy) and Viseart Dark Matte 1 blended into the crease. 

Notoriously Morbid Chaos Reigns

Status: Keep, for now

This shadow reminds me a lot of Fyrinnae Mephisto, but potentially bluer? Something interesting about it was that it applied different to each eye and therefore looked different.

Right eye

Left eye

As you can see, the right eye applied more blue, and the left eye applied more purple. I kind of like this and kind of didn't. I liked that the shadow is diverse and love how it paired with Dark Matte, but I also think it's a little problematic if an eyeshadow inherently does't look the same when you apply it. Of these two, I like Mephisto better, and if it comes to decluttering, I will lose this one to keep Mephisto. But I haven't worn Mephisto in a while, so until I can, I'll keep Chaos Reigns. 

Shiro Cosmetics I Understood That Reference
Status: Keep, for now

I feel similarly to this shadow as I do to Chaos Reigns. This shadow is really similar to Chaos Reigns, but much more blue. It is really pretty, and I could have easily paired it with the blue or purple tones in Dark Matte, but I chose to pair it with one of the brown shades. I really like the way the look turned out, and I can certainly see myself wearing this color more, but I don't know how much use I would get out of three shadows like this. Had I known all three were so similar, I would not have purchased two of them, so that makes me wonder if I should keep all three as well. For now, I do really enjoy the shadow, and I'll be keeping.

Weekend Looks: Fyrinnae and Dior

My intentions were to do two very colorful looks this weekend, but today, I found myself itching for a shadow that has become a fast ultimate favorite. So, I have one colorful look and one neutral look. And I'm happy with that. 

Here are the looks I did this weekend. 

Look 1: Fyrinnae The Alchemist and Viseart Dark Matte

Fyrinnae The Alchemist on the lid (over Pixie Epoxy) and Viseart 10, 11, and 12 blended into the crease.

Look 2: Dior Cosmopolite, Zoeva Substitute for Love, and Anastasia Beverly Hills Fudge

Cosmopolite on the lid and Substitute for Love and Fudge blended into the crease.

Fyrinnae The Alchemist

Status: Love

This is one of the coolest shadows I have seen. The Alchemist is a part of Fyrinnae's Arcane Magic line, which means (as I've explained a lot) that the color will look different depending on how close it is to light. The Alchemist looked teal on the lid and in the picture, but when I was in different lighting, it looked purple. It was really cool! I paired the shadow with shades in Viseart Dark Matte, and I think it was a perfect combination. I used the last three shades in the palette, which range from teal to a green-brown, and I thought the look was really pretty. I could have also paired it with purples or blues from this palette, but I was happy to use some of the shades that don't get as much use as others. 

Dior Cosmopolite

Status: Favorite

I've talked about Cosmopolite before, so I won't spend too much time on this shade. I love it. It is easily one of my favorite shadows in my entire collection. Yes, it is a bronze (sort of), but it is incredibly special and unique, in my opinion. It's like a bronze mixed with taupe and glitter/sparkle, except the sparkle is completely contained in the shadow and does not fall out whatsoever. I've been craving Cosmopolite since I last wore it (not that long ago), and just couldn't bring myself to wear something else today. 

Zoeva Substitute for Love

Status: Love

I've also talked about this a lot, so I'll be brief again. This is one of the best matte browns I have ever used. The tone is perfect for my skin tone, it offers great pigment, and it blends so easily. That I know of, this color is only available in the Cocoa Blend palette, but I have depotted mine.  

Anastasia Beverly Hills Fudge

Staus: Really enjoy

At the end of the day this is a brown shadow, so it's challenging for me to be overly enthusiastic about it. With that said, it's a great shadow and darkens up any gold/bronze look really beautifully. I'm a much bigger fan of ABH singles than the shadows in their palettes, and I get that I am in the minority there. Fudge is a perfect shade for me because it's darker than colors like Makeup Geek Cocoa Bear (one of my favorites) and lighter than matte black shades or browns that are dark enough to look black. This gives me the depth that I enjoy without being too dark. 

What I'm Not Buying: Zoeva Matte Spectrum Palette

Zoeva's latest release is a colorful, all matte palette that looks, honestly, very beautiful. 

But I won't be buying. 

This post is going to be a little different for me. I usually give you all the reasons why I personally am not going to buy a new product so that it might curb the hype or help you make a more informed decision on purchasing a product or not. 

And it's true that I am not going to buy this palette. The reason I am not going to buy it is because I already own Viseart Dark Matte:

As you can see, there are a LOT of similarities between the Matte Spectrum and Dark Matte palettes. The major difference is that Matte Spectrum offers more colors and includes the light end of the spectrum. 

When I write anti-haul posts about all matte palettes, I usually acknowledge that they are very similar to most everything on the market, are not unique, and bring little to the table. And I use Dark Matte as a reference point because this is one of the most unique and beautiful selections of matte colors I have seen. Dark Matte is also a perfect matte palette for people who have dark and deep skin tones, and I support the fact that this is a palette inclusive of everyone. 

I would not be surprised at all if Zoeva was inspired by Dark Matte in creating the Matte Spectrum palette. The similarities are too close for it to be a coincidence, in my opinion. 

Here's the thing. I've had a lot of people comment that they are lusting after Dark Matte, especially because I rave about it. Dark Matte was once a palette that I regretted purchasing and one that I seriously considered decluttering from my collection because I never used it. Because of my one week, one palette project where I forced myself to use color (and subsequently fell in love with it), I found Dark Matte to be an "essential" palette for me. I use quotes because, come one, this is makeup. Nothing is essential. But to put it into perspective, I use Dark Matte way more than I use Viseart Neutral Matte. 

And the main reason people hesitate purchasing Dark Matte is because it is a hefty $80. That is a ton of money to spend on a palette no matter your budget. And because I knew how little I once used Dark Matte, I hesitate to tell anyone that this palette is worth spending $80. I'm so glad I have this palette now (I used it today, in fact), but for a long while, I very much regretted spending the money on this. 

To be fair, I have no idea how the quality is for the Zoeva palette. I have only owned one Zoeva palette, and it was Cocoa Blend. The mattes in that palette are incredible, and they are absolutely shadows that I wouldn't part with. I ended up depotting Cocoa Blend into my singles palette and I decluttered some of the redundant shades and the shadows that I knew I wouldn't use much, but I kept all but one of the matte shades.

The Matte Spectrum palette is $40 USD. According to the Zoeva website, shipping to the US starts at $9. I know when I ordered Cocoa Blend last year shipping was around $13 to New York City. I have no idea if shipping rates have gone down at all. With that being said, Matte Spectrum is not a cheap palette. It is as expensive as palettes in the mid-range, like the Naked palettes or Chocolate Bar palettes. So, it is not as though this is drug store pricing, meaning $20 or less. But, without shipping, this palette is half the cost of Dark Matte. With shipping, it's still around $30 less than Dark Matte. And there are more shadows.

So, if the quality of the Matte Spectrum palette is the same as the Cocoa Blend palette, I would not hesitate to recommend Matte Spectrum if you have been wanting Dark Matte but don't want to pull the trigger because of price.

Here are swatches of Matte Spectrum:

Photo: ConMdeMiriam Makeup

And swatches of Dark Matte:

It's important to keep in mind that both photos show heavy, unrealistic swatches. But you can still tell that the colors are incredibly similar. 

Switching back to my normal anti-haul format, in all honestly, I was tempted by Matte Spectrum. And that is so hilarious to me because I so obviously already own literally all of the colors. As I've said, I really love my Zoeva mattes and this is clearly a color scheme that I like, and because of that, I was tempted. 

But, in all honesty, if both palettes were the same price, I would still choose Viseart. And the reason is because I prefer the tones of the Dark Matte shadows. I feel like they all have almost a brown tone in them that I feel makes them incredibly wearable. The Zoeva colors look much more bright and "true" to color. 

And I realize that I said I prefer Viseart when I just said I think Matte Spectrum would be a great alternative for those who don't want to spend $80 on Dark Matte. But I am also being honest with the fact that I prefer what I already own. And that's great for me because there really isn't any temptation once that is realized. 

Matte Spectrum is also a good reminder for me that sometimes brands come out with "new" products that are just repackaging old products that I already own. Sometimes brands will put it in really pretty packaging so that it tempts us or they will rearrange the colors so that it tricks our brains into thinking that it is something new. And, truthfully, Matte Spectrum is somewhat different. It has lighter colors that I might use as transition colors and cream shades that I would use under the brow bone. Dark Matte doesn't have those, so I had a moment where I thought maybe it was different. But it's not. Not really. It's just a new way of looking at colors that I've had in my collection for over a year. So while I can certainly see why people will be drawn to this palette, it's not unique to my collection, and I won't be buying. 

One Week, One Palette: Viseart Sultry Muse, Paris Nudes, Neutral Matte, and Dark Matte

So, this one might seem like cheating. This palette is a combination of my favorite shadows from the Viseart Neutral Matte, Sultry Muse, and Paris Nudes palettes. There are about five shades total between all three palettes that I did not include here. 

The reason I depotted these shadows is simply because I wasn't using these (incredibly expensive) palettes as much as I wanted to. The plastic was also breaking at the hinge on the original packaging, and I found myself timid to use them for fear of them breaking further. 

I decided to pull the trigger and try my first-ever depotting session—with easily the most expensive eyeshadows in my collection. There was a lot of trial and error (a lot of error), but I was able to remove all the shadows and repress the ones that broke in the process. 

Since depotting, I have gotten so much use out of these shadows and have felt often that if I had to, I could get rid of all my other eyeshadow and just keep this palette. So, I was excited by the thought of using it for an entire week. 

My Viseart shadows are housed in an Inglot Flexi palette:

Personally, I don't like the look of Z-Palettes, and was happy to find this empty palette from Inglot. The palette is magnetized, so there was no need for magnet sheets. 

As I mentioned in my first "one week, one palette" post, I've given myself the space to pull other shadows in as necessary. Since this was my Viseart palette, I decided to also use my Viseart Dark Matte palette:

This was my only Viseart palette that I did not depot. This really is a companion palette for me to use with a variety of shadows, so I felt it was more useful to keep it as a separate entity from the other shadows. 

Since the shadows don't have names (and I unfortunately do not remember which shades were from Paris Nudes or Sultry Muse), I will identify them by row and column. 

Below are six looks I did last week. Please note: I am still trying to figure out my camera and lighting. The pictures will improve. 

Please also note: I used Make Up For Ever Pearl on the inner corner and the white shadow (row 1, column 1) on my brow bone every day. 

Look 1:

Row 1, column 4 on the lid; row 2, columns 2 and 3 blended into the crease; row 3, column 3 lightly blended in the outer corner and into the crease.

Look 2:

Row 4, column 6 on the lid; row 2, column 3 blended into the crease; row 3, column 2 lightly blended in the outer corner and into the crease. 

Look 3:

Row 5, column 4 on the lid; Dark Mattes row 2, column 1 blended into the crease; Dark Mattes row 2, column 2 lightly blended in the outer corner and into the crease. 

Look 4:

Row 4, column 3 on the lid; Dark Matte row 2, column 3 blended into the crease; Dark Matte row 2, column 4 lightly blended in the outer and into the crease.  Row 4, column 3 on the lower lash line. 

Look 5:

Row 3, column 6 on the lid; Row 3, column 3 and row 3, column 1 blended into the crease; row 5, column 6 lightly blended in the outer corner and into the crease.

Look 6:

Dark Mattes row 1, column 3 and row 2, column 1 on the inner and outer lid; row 2, column 3 and row 3, column 2 blended into the crease; row 1, column 3 in the center of the lid. 

Using my Viseart palette this week was an interesting experience. I enjoyed using it, but not nearly as much as my custom palette with MAC, Makeup Geek, Make Up For Ever, and Morphe shadows that I used last week. And that really surprised me. 

I absolutely didn't dislike using this palette, but most of the looks felt a little subdued. I also noticed on day two that even though I used completely different eyeshadows, the look was nearly identical to the day before. I was happy with the way my eyeshadow turned out, but wanted to make looks that were different each day. 

I enjoyed the purple and orange looks, but was a little disappointed to see how little dimension they each had considering I included several different shadows with different tones. They looked almost as if I applied one color to my lid and extended it into the crease. 

Finally, I really like the look I did on the last day, but unfortunately, it didn't photograph well at all. The flash made me look like I had a black eye, which wasn't at all what it looked like in person. 

I certainly enjoyed playing with this palette, but I have to admit I'm glad the week is over and I can move on to something new. I didn't feel that way about the custom palette last week. I didn't want to stop using it. Had I not been taking pictures and wanting to create entirely new looks each day, I imagine I would have enjoyed playing with the palette even more. But, considering how many shadows are in this, there isn't a ton of diversity to the palette. I especially found myself missing my mauve and rose gold tones. 

The quality, of course, was astounding as Viseart has one of my favorite formulas. I did find that the Dark Matte shadows were a little harder to work with than the other ones, however, and found my look to be sometimes muddy. 

Overall, I had fun using this palette and liked challenging myself to create new looks, use colors that didn't typically get a lot of use from me, and try things that I hadn't before.