Weekly Looks: Jouer Skinny Dip, Sephora Pro Editorial, Colourpop, and Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts

This was a fun makeup week. I know that sounds slightly repetitive since makeup should always be fun, but this week was just a little more fun than usual. And that is because I am playing with color. I really think I am making up for all the time I spent buying every single brown color imaginable and lusting after neutral palettes. I am all about color now and have been really inspired by the single shadows in my collection. I feel like I'm moving into a good place with my eyeshadow collection, pairing down my shadows, and finding new sources of inspiration. 

Here are five looks I did this week. 

Look 1: Sephora Pro Editorial 

Jeffery on the first half of the lid, Helen P on the second half of the lid, and Costal Scents Oktoberfest blended into the crease. Shawn on the lower lash line. NYX Vivid Brights liquid liner in Sapphire. 

Look 2: Colourpop Rosé All Day, Fyrinnae Aztec Gold, and Makeup Geek Typhoon 

Colourpop Rosé All Day on the inner lid, Fyrinnae Aztec Gold on the center lid, Makeup Geek Typhoon on the outer lid, Costal Scents Peach Petal blended into the crease as a transition shade, and Costal Scents Fine Wine blended into the crease. Coloured Raine Super Star padded on the inner corner. 

Look 3: Jouer Skinny Dip and "Desert Dusk"

Jouer Magic Hour on the lid, peach Inglot shadow and purple Inglot shadow blended into the crease as transition shades, Coloured Raine Ladyship blended into the crease, and Coloured Raine Queen Mother padded onto the outer corner and on the lower lash line. Coloured Raine Crown on the brow bone and inner corner. 

Look 4: Jouer Skinny Dip and "Just Peachy Mattes"

Jouer Star Light on the lid, Colourpop The News blended into the crease as a transition shade, Colourpop Slim Fit blended into the crease, and Colourpop Stay Golden padded onto the outer corner and blended into the crease. 

Look 5: Costal Scents Lakeshore 

Costal Scents Lakeshore on the lid, Makeup Geek Beaches and Cream blended into the crease as a transition shade; Coloured Raine Royal Prerogative, Makeup Geek Desert Sands, and Makeup Geek Cocoa Bear blended into the crease; ABH Fudge and Coloured Raine Dethrone padded onto the outer corner, and Makeup Geek Flamethrower on the lower lash line. Marc Jacobs Whirl(pool) on the waterline. 

Look 1: Sephora Pro Editorial 

I had a lot of fun with this look. I must have been really feeling the greens this week because this look was originally going to be some kind of monochromatic green look. But then as soon as I was going to apply a green color to the crease, I diverted course and threw in a neutral orange-brown. I added a blue-green to the lower lash line and a bright blue eyeliner, and I really liked this look. I think it looked better in person than on camera, but considering these were light pastel colors, I think this turned out pretty alright. This is also a look that I would have never even thought to do a year ago, and while I think there are looks that are more "flattering," I had a lot of fun with this.

Look 2: Colourpop Rosé All Day, Fyrinnae Aztec Gold, and Makeup Geek Typhoon 

Remember that monochromatic green look I was just talking about? Well, I couldn't get it out of my system, so I did this look the next day. I don't know if I would have ever chosen to put all these green and gold shades together, but I have recently been doing a lot of shuffling of my single shadows in custom palettes, and at some point, all of these colors ended up near each other. And I really liked how they all looked. I love the gradient across the lid from gold to green, and I love each of the shadows I used. Like the look from the day before, I was planing on adding a dark green color to the crease, but once everything was in place, I diverted and went with berry. And I love how it looked! Green and berry isn't necessarily something I would easily think of to pair together, but I actually think the color combination is gorgeous. 

Look 3: Jouer Skinny Dip and "Desert Dusk"

So, this is one of my favorite eye looks that I have ever done. And I know that I say that often, but this look was really special to me. I used the silver-charcoal shade in the Jouer Skinny Dip palette as well as my duped "Desert Dusk" palette (I'll do a post on this soon). I guess it's a little bit cheating to call it the "Desert Dusk" look because several shades came from the Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts palette. I know it is sacrilege of me, but I actually depotted all the shades from Queen of Hearts. My reason for this is that every time I looked at the palette, I thought it was a gorgeous combination of shades, and each shadow was great quality. But, I hardly ever used it. And I think it's just because I've been so into my singles this year, and Queen of Hearts was being forgotten. Learning to get over ruining the perfection of shadows and palettes in depotting has really been such a helpful tool in my "makeup rehab" and in using my collection. I absolutely loved pairing the berry/purple shadows in Queen of Hearts with the charcoal shadow from Jouer. I think the overall look turned out quite smoky, but also intriguing. Again, this wasn't really a shadow combination I would have thought of when looking at Skinny Dip or Queen of Hearts as independent palettes, but when I saw the Queen of Hearts shadows depotted, I feel like it opened up a lot of creativity. 

Look 4: Jouer Skinny Dip and "Just Peachy Mattes"

Can you tell how my week went with shadow? Every time I used something that I thought was interesting, I had to try something out similar the next day. I typically don't like silver shadow, but I was so in love with the look I created with Jouer Magic Hour the day before that I wanted to step it up a notch and try Star Light, the most silver shade in the palette. I hadn't used my peachy matte palette in a few days, and as I've said, it seems I can't go too long anymore without using it, so I knew it was going to be a coral look. I wanted to see what it would look like to combine the neon nature of Colourpop Slim Fit with the coolness of Star Light, and I really liked the end result! I kept staring at my eyes all day because this silver was so intense and gorgeous. I find myself continually impressed with the Skinny Dip palette, and I've been enjoying using it with non-obvious colors.

Look 5: Costal Scents Lakeshore

Something that I am starting to learn is that it is perfectly okay to take inspiration from a palette without having to purchase that palette. At this point, I have basically every color of eyeshadow possible, so if there is a color scheme that is pretty to me, I know that I likely have colors in my collection that can replicate the look or give me a similar effect. For this look, I was actually inspired by the swatches of Natasha Denona Aeris:

I really liked the look of the blue and orange (left) shades together, and while a few years ago my impulse would have been to buy the palette, now I can take inspiration and just find colors in my own collection. I have shadows that would be better "dupes" for the Natasha Denona shadows, but I wanted to go for a slightly toned-down neutral look. Adding Makeup Geek Flamethrower on the lower lash line really made this look for me. Especially against Whirl(pool), I think the color combination just looked so cool.  

This Week's Looks: Makeup Geek, Fyrinnae, and Laura Mercier

Last week was my second week back at work since having surgery. If you've been wondering why things have been a little quiet on the blog in the past couple weeks, that's it. I've been completely exhausted. Under the best of circumstances I still get exhausted during the work week, so adding these other elements has resulted in complete and utter exhaustion. I barely even wore makeup last week because it was just too much for me. But, every week is a little better, and this week felt like I was getting back on track. 

I posted last week about a palette I made of singles in my collection that duped the Too Faced Just Peachy Matte palette. I use "dupe" here a little loosely because I made some adjustments to make the palette more versatile and closer to what I would have wanted it to be. And I have to say, I was so inspired by this palette all week and continue to be. I kept wanting to use it every day, which is a little rare for me. I was also inspired to try out slightly different color schemes that I'm used to (while still trying to be "work-appropriate"), and I have to say that I had a really fun week. For the exception of lid shades, all shadows I used this week are in this dupe palette. 

(I'm still a little rusty with taking daily look pictures, so please forgive some of the photo quality.)

Here are four look I did this week. 

Look 1: Makeup Geek Mai Tai 

Mai Tai on the lid, Costal Scents Peach Petal blended into the crease as a transition shade, and Colourpop Wait For It and Making Moves blended into the crease. 

Look 2: Fyrinnae Rapunzel Had Extensions

Rapunzel Had Extensions (over Pixie Epoxy) on the lid, Makeup Geek Peach Smoothie blended into the crease as a transition shade, Coloupop Wait For It blended into the crease, and Coloupop Making Moves lightly padded onto the outer corner. 

Look 3: Laura Mercier African Violet

African Violet on the lid, Costal Scents Peach Petal blended into the crease as a transition shade, Colurpop Making Moves and Stay Golden blended into the crease, and Makeup Geek Bitten padded onto the outer corner. 

Look 4: Fyrinnae Winter Again 

Winter Again on the lid (over Pixie Epoxy), Costal Scents Peach Petal blended into the crease as a transition shade, Colourpop Wait For It and Making Moves blended into the crease, and Colourpop Stay Golden padded onto the outer corner. 

At this point I have talked about all of these eyeshadows before, and I love them all, which is why they are still in my collection. So I'm going to talk about the overall looks. 

Look 1: Makeup Geek Mai Tai 

I think this look turned out fine. I think it's a pretty look; it's simple and neutral and something that I think a lot of people can wear and feel like they're wearing color. I've gotten so many compliments when wearing Mai Tai because it has the beautiful duo chrome that's hard to capture in a photo. Looking at my peach palette this week, Mai Tai was the first shadow I thought to make a look, which I think makes sense. It's an easy shadow and color scheme. This was probably my least favorite look this week, but not because I didn't like it. I just liked some of the other color combinations a little better. But this look was the "gateway drug" if you will that made me want to use the peach palette all week. 

Look 2: Fyrinnae Rapunzel Had Extensions

Every time I use Rapunzel Had Extensions, I feel like I'm cheating just a little bit. It's such a stunning shadow that I feel like it's genuinely hard to get a bad look with it. I typically pair RHE with oranges or browns, and while the orange-peach tones I used this week aren't too far from that, it will still a little different for me. And unsurprisingly, since RHE is a perfect peach shimmer, I loved how this look turned out. Colourpop Wait For It is a really cool shadow. It's one of those chameleon shades, and it can pull more pink or orange depending on what it's paired with. I paired it mostly this week with pinker shades, but the color combination of this look really brought out its orange tones, which I loved. I also loved how Makeup Geek Peach Smoothie performed in this look. Typically Peach Smoothie kind of disappears on me, but I was really pleased to see how it performed with the other colors in the look, and I love the subtle peach between brow bone and crease. 

Look 3: Laura Mercier African Violet

This was my favorite look of the week, and I guess this one is also cheating a little bit, because I unconsciously recreated a more intense version of one of my all-time favorite looks from my custom Inglot palette:

After pairing the peach tones with pink and gold tones, I wanted to try something a little different. And my first thought was purple. African Violet is one of my favorite purples because of how much gold is in it. While that might seem like an obvious flattering color, it's a combination that I personally haven't come across outside of this shadow. African Violet is typically a shadow I wear when I want to look a little sophisticated. I usually pair it with neutral plum shades, and I always like how it looks. So pairing this shadow with the bright peachy-pink Colourpop shadows was certainly new for me. And I just really loved how it looked. Every time I caught a glimpse of this look in the mirror, I was struck by how much I loved it. I actively felt pretty wearing it, and I thought it flattered my eye color and skin tone really well. 

Look 4: Fyrinnae Winter Again 

This is where things got a little adventurous for me. I had loved the peach palette so much with all the other colors I paired it with, and I wanted to try it with a blue. Ideally, I would have loved to pair the peach tones with a teal shadow, but I thought that would be just a little too outrageous for work. I was pushing it as it was with this icy blue. This is definitely a favorite Fyrinnae shadow for me. It's not like a typical duochome white-blue (like in ABH Moonchild or KVD Alchemist) because it's more on the sky blue side instead of the royal blue side, if that makes sense. I don't know how I feel about this look. And I didn't know how I felt about it the entire time I wore it. I alternated between really liking the color combination and also feeling like it didn't flatter me. I did receive a compliment on this look from someone at work who doesn't typically offer compliments, so there's that. But I liked that I tried something a little different and love that this dupe palette—made up entirely of shadows I already had in my collection—has inspired me enough to want to play with color combinations throughout the week. 

This Week's Looks: Makeup Geek, Fyrinnae, Kat Von D, Ardency Inn, and Jouer

You all may remember a couple months ago that I shared I would be having a couple of surgeries and would be a little quiet on the blog front, especially in the "this week's looks" posts. I had the first surgery two months ago and have been in recovery, and I am having the second next week. So this will be my last weekly looks post for a while. I'll post a weekend looks post tomorrow, and that will also be the last for a while. What's nice is that since I'll be off work for some of the recovery time, I'll have more time to write anti-haul posts, which I know are the posts my readers most enjoy. 

In terms of makeup this week, I just wore what I wanted and had some fun because I knew this would be my last week wearing makeup for a while. As always, my weekly looks are more toned down than my weekend looks because of work, but I still feel these looks were a little fun for work. 

Here are five looks I did this week. 

Look 1: Makeup Geek Blacklight

Blacklight on the lid, Colourpop Silver Lining and 143 blended into the crease, and Colourpop Say I Do blended above Silver lining and 143. 

Look 2: Kat Von D Pastel Goth

Clementine on the lid, Meow blended into the crease, Dope padded onto the outer corner, and Skull on the brow bone. 

Look 3: Fyrinnae Serendipity

Serendipity on the lid (over Pixie Epoxy) and Costal Scents Fine Wine blended into the crease. 

Look 4: Ardency Inn Hell 

Hell on the lid and Bobbi Brown Camel blended into the crease.

Look 5: Jouer Skinny Dip and Melt Rust Stack 

Jouer Tan Lines on the inner and outer lid and Skinny Dip on the middle of the lid, Melt Rubbish and Antique blended into the crease, and Melt Classic on the brow bone. 

Makeup Geek Blacklight

Status: Favorite 

I've written about this shadow before, so I will keep this brief. I really love this shadow. It's a blue/purple duochrome (so of course it doesn't show up well in photos) that has the appearance of being a neutral shadow but also colorful and interesting. I paired it with some of my favorite berry/pink shadows, and I think the look came out really pretty. I recently bought some quad palettes because I originally started my makeup collection with quads, and I wanted to see how I felt about having some premade looks. Since this is one of my favorite looks, it made sense to me to create it as a quad (however, the quad pictured has ABH Buon Fresco instead of Colourpop Silver Lining). 

Kat Von D Pastel Goth

Status: Keep, enjoy

Although I have addressed this a few times, inevitably someone will ask why I own this palette since I wrote an anti-haul post on it. I bought this palette as a symbol of solidarity when Kat Von D wrote "No mi presidente" on her Instagram and the post was filled with hate and people saying they would never again purchase from her. This was her newest product out at the time, so I bought it to show support to her as well as all women who were taking a stand. 

Since owning it, I have enjoyed using it, and I use it on a semi-regular basis. But, I still stand behind what I said in that anti-haul post, which is why I have not removed it despite now owning the palette. I have only used it as a companion palette before this look, and I have to say that I really liked how this turned out. But I do wish the shadows were more pigmented. In the photos, the pigment looks really good, but that was after building the shadows up quite a bit. On the lower lash line especially it is nearly impossible to get any of these shadows to show up. But I don't dislike this palette, it is unique to my collection in a lot of ways, and I use it often. So this ended up being a good purchase for me. But I also strongly feel that I had skipped out on this, like I originally intended, I would not be missing out. 

Fyrinnae Serendipity

Status: Favorite

This is also a shadow that I've written about before, so I will keep this short. I LOVE this shadow; it is one of my all-time favorites. When I was first exploring indie shadows, one of my readers said that Serendipity was one of her favorite shadows and that I had to give it a try. I have to say that the swatches I've seen online of this shadow don't do it justice, in my opinion. In swatches, Serendipity looks like a rusty bronze. But on me at least, it's like a dusty golden mauve. It is so pretty. I highly recommend this shade to everyone because it's a neutral shadow but unlike anything else that I have. (It does require Pixie Epoxy, however.)

Ardency Inn Hell 

Status: Keep, for now

This was the first time I wore this shadow, and while I thought it was really pretty, I think it could be a pass for a lot of people. I was sure that I had other colors just like this in my collection, but when I swatched all the ones I thought were duplicate, none of them had the depth of this shadow, especially with the shine that it gives. The closest I have is ABH Brownie, but Hell is much deeper. The only thing is that I don't usually wear colors this deep on the lid. This would be much more of an outer corner color for me, but I already have several deep brown shimmers that could fill that purpose. So, I don't know. This is a gorgeous shadow, but I just don't know how much use I will get out of it. 

Jouer Skinny Dip

Status: Keep

This was my first Jouer purchase, and I have to say that I am unbelievably pleased. I bought this palette in part because I wanted to see how it compared to my Natasha Denona shadows that came from the #9 5-pan palette. The shadows are indeed pretty similar, but the Jouer ones, I think, are prettier and pack a better punch. Plus, the Jouer palette has six shadows for $40, and Natasha Denona has five shadows for $48. The colors were so shiny that it was actually hard to take a photo of them, but I thought the look was just so pretty. I can't wait to wear them again. I paired this look with the Melt Rust Stack, which is one of my all-time favorite palettes of sorts. This is my ideal neutral matte palette, even more than the Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye (which has been decluttered from my collection) and the Viseart Neutral Matte (still in my collection). I reach for the Rust Stack above everything else. I've only used Skinny Dip one time, and I'm planning on using again tomorrow. I don't have established thoughts on it since I've only used it once, but I've been very impressed so far.