Aww, I'm Such a Softie...

...for Almay Shadow Softies.

I was perusing the beauty section at my local Target, as any good drugstore diva is known to do on the weekly, and noticed that the Shadow Softies by Almay are on clearance. I had some of that "Oh my gosh, gotta buy 'em all!" panic, came home, tweeted Almay to find out if they were going to stop making them all together (they aren't...), and started trying to figure out how many I had needed. Almay's website lists that they make 12. I currently own 8. I think I got a lockdown on the Shadow Softies, no?

So let's see how they work!

These appear like a powder when you look at them, but have a softer than powder consistency. I'd always just used my fingers to apply, but found a good, stiff eyeshadow brush today, and seemed to have some luck there.

These colors are all wearable and soft in appearance, and blend really well together. No odd scents, nothing overly sparkly or anything like that. Even the most intense appearing colors will go on really soft. And I did apply these over primer, but even with the primer, they match what I know to be true about these shadows otherwise, as far as performance goes, so I don't even know that the primer made much difference.

My only objection, I guess, would be to their longevity. I applied these around 2 this afternoon, and I got probably a solid 5, maybe 6 if I'm being optimistic, hours worth of wear. By the end of 8 hours, they'd virtually disappeared from my eyelids. Which, if you're like me, and you're a part timer, isn't bad, cause it'll get you through a full day. If you're someone who needs your eyeshadow to hang with you for 8, 10, 12 hours...this isn't going to get the job done for you.

Let's go to the pictures! This particular pairing is "Lilac" and "Vintage Grape", with purple Kat Von D liner. My son picked out this color pairing, I had to bargain him down from the Lilac with a royal blue shade, that you'll see later this week! :O He's normally got a very good eye for color, but his eye was feeling a little wild today!

Eyes open... (Sidebar: that lipcolor is City Color in Flirtini, which came in my most recent Ipsy bag, and looked shockingly bright initially, but has quickly become one of my favorites...I think I've worn it every day since I got it.)

Eyes closed. Soft, delicate, pretty, and they blend together really nicely. Like I said, if I had to complain at all, it'd be with their longevity. 

During the warm months, I like to actually go outside and let the sun be the natural sunlight. Today, it was record breaking cold, so I didn't go outside, but the sun light seemed to be pretty strong, so I decided to take a picture in natural light, and see what I got there. So this gives you a little bit more of an idea of what these would look like in natural lighting.

Trying to get a little arty with the product shot, haha. That's Lilac closer to the camera, and Vintage Grape farther away. Small containers that fit well in to your hand, and would no doubt go well in to a Z Palette if that's your thing.

I think that the best market for these shadows is probably someone who has a little bit of color bravery about them, but for the most part, wants to be able to rock a soft, clean, natural look. If that's you, then you will enjoy these shadows. In fact, not only will you enjoy them, they'll probably become your new favorites. If you are someone who thinks nothing of wearing lime glitter to your eyebrow, and needs your shadows to rock long in to the night, you should probably keep looking, you haven't found your new favorites here.

Me personally, I'm somewhere in the middle. I like these a lot. :)

Later, my loves!

The Naked Truth makes a return!

When last we all chatted back in November, I was raving over "The Naked Truth" 5 pan shadow kit from Wet N Wild. (Check it, I really was! Really!) Problem was, that while I showed pictures of me wearing the shadow, I never showed pictures of the actual shadow.

As my opinion never changed (it's a well curated set of colors. They go on nicely, blend well together, and you get decent wear time with them. Wet N Wild sometimes misses the mark, but when they hit it, they really hit it, and they did here), I decided to take a different way, and give you some glamour shots.

The requisite shot of me, in the shadow.

And eyes closed;

And eyes closed, smirking at my wall. And if I can get sidetracked here for a second; that lip color that you see is FLOWER lip butter in Wispy Wisteria. Wal-Mart is closing out some FLOWER makeup right now - mainly, it seems like, because they're changing out some packaging designs, and I snapped up this little guy for $3.50. If you're like me and love to look pretty, without parting with some pretty pennies, a stroll through your Wal-Mart makeup aisle is in order. But I'll speak more to that another day. Back to the matter at hand - 

Swatched on the inside of my arm. The dark line you see at the middle of my arm, from there to the left, that is swatched, with no primer (yes, there are five swatches there). Above the dark line is with primer.

So, no, the pigmentation is not super intense. But...say, if you had a 15 year old who thought they were going to die if they didn't get to own the Naked palette, and you're pretty sure you're going to die if you have to pay for it? This is close enough that no one will know.

My guy!

A matte cream as the "base" shadow, a shimmery pale gold for the "browbone", light brown with a fine glimmer for the "eyelid", copper with a gold glimmer for the crease, and a matte deep brown for the definer. Dig it! :)

I like this shadow set a lot. I'd recommend it to a friend. Oh, look at that, I just did!

Later, gorgeous!

Beauty information seems to be finding me online today...

So I thought I'd share a little of what I found! I've just been online, minding my own, and this information keeps coming back!

First, this one from Buzzfeed; 42 Money Saving Tips Every Makeup Addict Needs To Know. Embarassingly enough, I once tried number 32, but instead of using cinnamon OIL, I used cinnamon candy flavoring. Y'all, I nearly cried. I could NOT wipe that stuff off fast enough! And I think I'm going to buy an eyeshadow, just to test out number 29. I do love to test a good tip off Pinterest, and that's one I've been seeing a lot of...

And I do actually do number 37, with some of my eye creams and BB Creams, but that's because putting it on when it feels cold feels nice. :D

Then I found THIS site; MUABS.com, which seems to be a listing of blog sales. When you blog about something like beauty, one of the big parts of it is PRODUCT. It takes LOTS. Some bloggers sell their new or lightly used product off on the cheap. Keep up at MUABS.com!

Here's a collection of links to other articles; Beauty Tips And Tricks Every Woman Needs To Know!, which seems to have a lot of interesting information in it. Or links to lots of interesting information, anyway.

And lastly, this one; Apply your mascara first, and other makeup tricks that really work. This one was one of the most intriguing for me, personally. I'm looking forward to testing out a lot of these!

Just a little sampling of the information I've found today, for you to look over if you want. I'm looking forward to testing out a lot of these - like I said, I've been seeing that "repair an eyeshadow" tip a LOT lately, so I might be buying a new eyeshadow, just to break it!

Later, lovelies!