Review: Stila Countless Color Pigments in Acoustic, Light Show, and Indie

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking through my eyeshadows. And I realized something particularly concerning. I didn't own anything colorful. All of my palettes are neutral. All of my eyeshadow quads were either browns or muted colors. I literally did not own anything with any actual color in it. I was really upset, so I began remedying the situation.

As luck would have it HauteLook.com was hosting a Stila sale, so I picked up a few of Stila's Countless Color Pigments.

I had been looking at these on Sephora.com for quite some time. The packaging is just so cute and colorful, the pans of eyeshadow look like pieces of artwork. The only thing that turned me off from buying them was the price: I couldn't imagine shelling out $22 for colorful eyeshadows that I would only wear once in a blue moon. But I'm really glad that I now own them, they've serves as a great introduction to colored shadows. I've worn green and blue eyeshadow to class now, I feel like I can conquer the world at this point. These shadows aren't matte, but they also aren't truly a satin finish. Instead, they fall somewhere in between. I really like that about them: it makes them very wearable for the daytime. As a note: all of the swatches in this post are two swipes of my finger, no primer.

First, we have Indie! Indie is based around pink colors. Of the three Countless Color Pigments I'm reviewing, it has the lease clear lines between the colors. Thus, it's the most difficult to swatch/create defined looks. But I'm all about my gradient eyeshadow, so it worked perfectly for me.

The bottom color is almost a red-pink, the middle is a blue-pink and is a tad darker than the first color, then the top color is a light pink.

Indie on my human eyes.

This next Countless Color Pigment is in the color Light Show. Honestly, I think it is simultaneously the most pretty of the three that I have and the lease wearable. The colors are just so out there, I think it will be difficult to find ways to wear this that doesn't draw a lot of unwanted attention. Still, I love it.

It has two blue colors: one light blue and one dark blue. Then there's a lime green and a bright yellow. I really like the blues and I wish I could wear them more often, but with my olive skin, dark hair, and hazel eyes, I just don't think blue is a great color for me.

I loved the colors I could create on my eyelids with this color. That being said, Ian, my boyfriend, throughout the day, commented on how he hated my eyeshadow. I think he was half joking and being half serious. I rarely wear eyeshadow that can't be described as neutral, and I think it threw him off a little bit. Poor kid.

Acoustic was my favorite of the bunch, and I think it's the most wearable of the three. And considering that it has a red, that's a pretty crazy statement, but the red turns out to be super wearable.

It's comprised of three colors: a brown, a red, and a skin-tone shimmery color.

I think that it turns out to be the most wearable because the red can sort of fade into the brown, so it doesn't scream, "I'm wearing red eyeshadow!!!"

A nice closeup of my favorite Countless Color Pigment: I honestly just can't stop thinking about how adorable this eyeshadow is. I think I'm going to wear it again tomorrow.

In conclusion, I really liked all three of the Countless Color Pigments, but Acoustic is going to be the most wearable longterm for me. These retail for $22, but on Hautelook.com, I miraculously got them for $6 each. I suggest checking out Hautelook. They don't often have great makeup brands, but when they do, I always make sure to get something.

Review: Too Faced Boudoir Eyes

I love eyeshadow palettes. There, I said it. I'm always on the lookout for the eyeshadow palette that will soon become my favorite. Ever since I got this Too Faced palette a couple of weeks ago, it has been my go to palette for creating every sort of look, from a daytime I'm-going-to-class look, all the way to Amelia's smokiest look out there. Which really isn't all that smokey. Sometimes I feel like I'm not living up to my generation (my favorite way to spend a Friday night involves my couch and a beauty mask, I've never been clubbing, I don't really go out). Honestly, I should start acting my age. Wearing weird makeup, weird clothes. There are only so many years in one's life when they can pull shit like that off, and I'm wasting my time in conservative dresses and simple makeup.

Anyways, back to the actual point of this blog post: my new favorite palette. 

The first thing that I noticed about this palette, and probably the only reason I purchased it over the other Too Faced palettes available, was the packaging. If you read this blog, you already know that I almost value packaging more than I value the product itself. This package is just exactly what I want out of an eyeshadow palette. And I like that it's a metal packaging, instead of cardboard. Every other Too Faced eyeshadow palette (save their Summer Eye Shadow Collection) are packaged in cardboard.

I just don't like it. Eyeshadow palettes (and makeup in general) sort of lasts me forever. I feel like I never use up a product: why in the heck would I want it packaged in a material that can fall prey to any number of things in my life (water, hard falls, general mishaps). Like seriously, if I can't put it down into the little puddle of water from washing my face, I'm flat out not buying it. This explains why I don't own a single Benefit blush, any Benefit set in general, or Too Faced eye shadow palettes.

So when I saw that this palette is packaged in beautiful metal, I was all over this palette. It also makes this beautiful clicking noise when you close it. I sit around sometimes and just open and close this palette because the click is just so pretty.

But when it comes down to it, that isn't really why this palette is my new favorite thing since the invention of iPhones (on an unrelated note, I'm super excited about the iPhone 5S). What I love about this palette is the eyeshadows.

One of my favorite things about Too Faced is that they're smart. They understand the way in which people apply eyeshadow. They know that I don't need equal amounts of light pink and black. In fact, Too Faced, if you're reading this, I don't really need black. Again, I'm way too old internally for my physical age.

Anyways, the eyeshadows. The light colors are the ones that you're going to use up the quickest, so they've made them significantly larger than the darker colors that you'll primarily use for the crease. Too Faced also organizes their shadows into three groups: Day, Classic, and Fashion. While I like this way of arranging eyeshadows, it also bothers me a bit. I can honestly say that after months of using this palette, I've never used eyeshadows that didn't all belong to the same group. I've never mixed a Day color with a Fashion color. For me, it takes some of the creativity out of my makeup, but when I'm in a rush and need to get eyeshadow done, it can be very useful.

These swatches are done over no eyeshadow primer, one swipe from my finger (or my sister's finger because I ran out of fingers that I could use to swatch, seeing as I needed to also hold a camera). From left to right: In the Buff, Fuzzy Handcuffs, Voulez-vous, Satin Sheets, Sugar Walls, Garter Belt, Birthday Suit, Lap Dance, and French Tickler.

I really enjoy that this palette has different textures of eyeshadow. In the Buff, Fuzzy Handcuffs, and Garter Belt are matte shadows, Voulez-Vous, Satin Sheets, Birthday Suit, and Lap Dance all have more of a shimmer to them. Sugar Walls is similarly shimmery, but then it also had glitter. And French Tickler has gold glitter in the black shadow. Because of the glitter, I've found Sugar Walls and French Tickler to have a little bit of fallout, but it's not terrible by any means.

I use this palette for a more subtle eye look for class. I'm wearing all of the classic colors here: Satin Sheets, Sugar Walls, and Garter Belt.

One of the things that I like most about this palette is its versatility. I can go subtle, but it also has the colors to go in much more of a going-out direction.

Needless to say, I love this palette. I'm buying it for my sister for her birthday (don't worry, this isn't a spoiler, she asked for it because she loves mine so much). This palette is packable, seeing as its a decent size (I hate traveling with my Naked or Naked2 palettes). It has a variety of textures and colors. I'm planning on buying the Summer Collection palette when I have the extra money lying around.

It retails for $36. It's beautiful. I totally recommend it to anyone and everyone.