Sephora's "Say Hello" Hello Kitty Palette

I am a Hello Kitty NERD. The ULTIMATE. I have a Hello Kitty build-a-bear, my iPod has a Hello Kitty skin on it, I have a Hello Kitty wallet/planner/glasses case, there is a Hello Kitty decal on my car, etc... While I am usually not a fan of cartoon character overkill - I like to think I do Hello Kitty in the classiest way possible. Nothing I own is tacky and I choose my battles with the sacred cat very carefully.

So when Sephora was like "hey we're gonna make a whole Hello Kitty line" - I just about crapped my pants. I trusted Sephora to do it in the non-cheesiest way possible & judging by the packaging, I'd say they accomplished that. They have some cute blinged out stuff, too - but I'm not paying $50 for a mirror shaped like Hello Kitty covered in rhinestones.

Anyways - I got two things from the collection. One is the "Say Hello" palette which includes 4 eyeshadows and 4 solid lipglosses. The other was a small bottle of the perfume which is apparently just called "Hello Kitty fragrance". I hope the marketing team didn't hurt themselves coming up with that one.

This is the Say Hello palette in SUPER FUN (lol). 

It's available only at Sephora & if you want to buy it online, 

it's available here through their website for $35.

So what did I think? Hmm.. Well. Honestly - I don't think it's worth $35. While I love the packaging to death (99.9% of the reason I chose this product over the others) - the colors are umm.. okay? I'm actually pretty sure I had this EXACT same quad in like 9th grade and it was from CVS. I was hoping that the line would produce some funkier, bolder shades but mmmmmnot so much. The other palette has all lighter shades (mint green, medium brown, lilac, & white) and didn't appeal to me at all - so I figured if I was going to try one, this would be it. I do think the sweet plum color is pretty, but the black & metallic gray are pretty standard and the sugarplum lilac color doesn't have a ton of pigmentation.

And uhhh.. where's the highlight color? I'm not putting lilac on my brow bone. Nice try, though. I know it's not a requirement to have a highlight color somewhere in the palette, but I'm just saying - it'd be nice. Especially since they kind of market this as an "all-in-one" kit.

The lipglosses don't get swatches. Because even though they have color in the picture - they have none on your lips. They all smell like grape & they claim to have like grape seed oil in them so I guess they're moisturizing & shit. Honestly, I'm probably never going to use them lol. Takes a good 3-4 swipes with the ol' finger to get a little bit of shine & since they're underneath the eyeshadows - I forget they exist.

Just being honest.

The perfume is alright. The bottle is shaped like her head, so once again packaging - YOU WIN. I got it with my beauty insider points, so it was free. Not sure if they still have that promo going on, but if you're interested - just ask your local Sephora chick. I got it in-store, not online. The website says it has "notes of green apple and Japanese fruits". They also claim that it will make you smile inside.Can't attest to the second one, but I can tell you that I definitely get a citrus vibe from it. Good not great - I'm more of a fan of light floral scents, honestly. But if you like citrus - maybe give it a shot. 

Overall, Hello Kitty looks better on my car/planner/wallet/glasses case than she does in my makeup collection. It's $35 that you could spend on a better quality palette. Learn from my mistakes, pretty ladies. Don't let the packaging seduce you.

Toki Doki Robbery Palette!

Watch the full video review below :)

^ deep in thought - _ -
i cannot win with still screens.

Swatches:

(Sorry that the bronzer/blushes are a bit hard to see - 

remember that they're not shadows, so they're a little bit milder in pigmentation) 

The TokiDoki Robbery palette is available at Sephora. I bought it for $49, but they actually lowered the price $10 since then - so you can score it for just $39. Lucky bitches!! :) Click here to take advantage & order directly through the Sephora website. They say it's a $149 value.. don't know how true that is but hey - sure makes it sounds like you're getting one hell of a deal ;) Let me know if you'll be picking it up.

Enjoy! xo

Exposed Organics LOTD + Review!

I have talked about the awesome, all natural beauty brand Exposed Organics on the blog a couple times now. The girl who owns it, Celeste, has become a great friend of mine and above all - they have some seriously amazing products. If you're looking for a brand that's free of harsh chemicals or downright weird ingredients, look no further.

Celeste sent me 4 of her newest shadows to try out and I am in love with these little biotches. I am a big fan of very sparkly shadows that also have great color payoff.. and just for the record - they are slightly tough to come by. So anyways, here are the four colors swatched for you so you can see JUST how colorful and beautious they really are:

The colors are:

Stiletto - a crazy sparkly dark color PERFECT for smokey eyes

Raw - a frosted "almost nude" orange-y pink shade

Platinum - a GORGEOUS glittery silver

Tutu - a frosted pink-y purple with iridescent flecks of sparkle

So I mean, just by the descriptions - you can tell that these are some seriously unique shades. You can wear them either wet or dry and they're all available for purchase on the Exposed Organics website. They're loose pigments, too - so feel free to mix them into nail polishes, lip glosses.. anything your heart desires:

frickin' cute as crap!

So I did a quick look for you guys just to show you how WHAM BAM sparkly "stiletto" and "platinum" are. I'm still convinced the pictures don't do them justice, but I think it gets the point across. 

Another lesson learned - turning the flash off gives you a really great "tan".. Just ask Casper the Friendly Ghost over there to the left..

I did use a primer underneath (it's Senna's "totally transforming"), which always helps when you're using loose pigments since it gets them to adhere much better. Another big perk was the fact that I didn't look like I tried to use disco blush after I was done doing my eyes. Some of these glittery shadows get all over my face and then I end up attacking my cheeks with masking tape trying to pull it off. I'm thrilled to announce my cheeks are tape free and my eyes are sparkly and wonderful.

I'd strongly suggest you guys check out the Exposed Organics site since they carry everything from bomb pigments to crazy all natural bath products that you're gonna wanna marry. You can also follow them on twitter (@exposedorganics) for updates on the brand. Thanks to Celeste for the kickass shadows & don't forget to give our website your vote in the Cosmo Blog Awards! We'd love to take the cake in the Beauty Category & it only takes 2 seconds to vote. Mucho appreciated-o.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend, bb's!

TokiDoki Bastardino Palette Review

I seriously need to go to therapy for my packaging addiction. I swear to god, if Ulta sold dog terds in pink sparkly tubes with fake diamonds on the lid - I would probably consider. It's a serious serious issue that I've developed.

So of course when Sephora introduced this new brand to their arsenal called "tokidoki".. I took one look at their little portion of the website and BOOM. Hook line SUNK. Apparently this brand has other crap aside from makeup but I've never heard of it. It reminds me of like a punk-ish glam-rock japanese brand. Very colorful, very fun, and very eye catching. It's not the norm, and god knows that I'm all about things that aren't the norm.

So I decided to get one of their quads just because I felt like it was a good way to try everything and you got a little keychain thing with it, so that was cute. They have a bunch of weird little characters that their products are named after - so that makes it fun. The keychain is about the size of a thumb-tack, though - which was very disappointing to see in person since I saw it on the website and convinced myself that it was fairly large. WRONG. This is why I stop myself from buying everything online. ANYWAYS, Went and picked up the "bastardino" (who is a small dog/cactus looking creature) quad today for $25 and here are some shots for you:

The palette itself is pretty bulky because the little bottom compartment is where they put the keychain thing. Since it's the size of a thumbtack - it could probably have a small party down there with the rest of it's miniature keychain friends. I guess you could put something down there (like.. umm.. some change?) but it just seems a little unnecessary to me. But whatever - I'll find some use for it. Hair ties. There we go. Oh and peep bastardino himself on the palette lid. 

This is definitely a neutral kind of "earth tone" palette. They call it a "cromatico" palette, I'm assuming, because 3 out of 4 of the colors have sort of a "chrome" look to them. You get a little brush with it - but I'll never use it because it's teeny tiny. The shadows are a decent size, though - which is nice.

Now I was seriously expecting these to be way way wayy more pigmented - but they sort of let me down. I know I didn't apply them over a primer or anything, but judging by the way the brand promotes itself - I expected these to be BAM POP POW colors. They're more muted, which I guess isn't a bad thing since it makes them more wearable - but whatever. Just not what I expected. The carnivora color is good for highlights since it's a sheer, frosted beige color. Riposino is a lot like midnight cowboy from Urban Decay - just the glitter specks aren't as big .. it's more a subtle shimmer. Probably my favorite color in this palette. They gave you a nice matte brown color (mummetto) and topped you off with the pop of color that is bastardino. It's a sheer green color that has flecks of gold through it. It's a pretty color - I just expected it to be more pigmented. 

If I had bought this and loved it - I was totally mentally prepared to buy the other 2 quads they have (one is a smokey black/white/silver and the other is a funky black/pink/purple). I'm not sure if I'll be scooping up other tokidoki palettes now just because they're.. good not great. They're fun packaging and they seem like a cute brand - but I'm not blown away by the quality. They have some cool eyeliner pens in funky colors and some pretty glitter pencil liners - but I'm sketch! Definitely wanted something from them to add to my sweet packaging collection but unfortunately - I don't think I'll be building up this arsenal :o\

Glamour Doll Eyes Review!

For anyone who makeup stalks on the internet, you've definitely heard of this brand I'm about to talk about. Glamour Doll Eyes is like the cult classic brand of beauty bloggers and youtube gurus. I'm proud to say that thanks to the lovely Vee - I am now a member of the cult. Never thought I'd say that, but as long as I'm not being convinced to drink poison kool-aid or anything, I think this is my kind of cult.

I had the opportunity to try 6 shadows of GDE shadows & WOW - I was so impressed with not only the quality of the shadows and how pigmented they were, but how much work Vee puts into these little buggers. Each one comes in an individually labeled pot and they say the color on the LID, which makes me so happy since I hate when companies put the color name on a sticker on the side of the pot that I rip to shreds whenever I open it :o) Here are the colors in the pots:

Fabulous is a really summery, light blue color that reminds me of the beach. It's one of the more frosted shadows out of this bunch. Immature is a greenish blue color that's combined with some light reflecting specks of silver. Such a unique and fun color. Brown eyed girl is my ABSOLUTE favorite! It's a gorgeous brown pigment that has sparkly purple flecks in it. Such a unique combination of color and it's so multi-dimensional. Dusk is a gorgeous dark blue with various sparkles in it (I see mostly light blue and silver), and it makes a great crease color. Violent is another of the more "frosted" shadows and it's a really subtle violet color. Great for highlights and putting in your inner corners since it's so sheer and pretty. Finally, Grease Lightning is an amazing dark, dirty gold color that is SUPER pigmented and reflects light CRAZILY - making it appear about a billion different shades of gold. Such an awesome color and unlike any other gold shadow I've seen before. I swatched so you guys could get a better idea of the descriptions:

Glamour Doll Eyes are only available online (click the link to go to the site) and are also available in sample size pots if you'd like to try before you commit to a full size. Either way - samples are like $1.50 and full size are onlt $6 - so seriously, these are some of the best "bang for your buck" products you'll find out there. These are great shadows to build your color collection and having pigments around is always a great idea since they're so multi-functional. I want to thank Vee BIG TIME for allowing me to try out these products and also curse her because now I'm addicted and will be purchasing every single color she makes :o)

My GDE Look Using Dusk & Grease Lightning