Holiday 2015: "Sephora Favorites Superstars" Review & Swatches!!!

Originally I planned for a consolidated blog post sharing my thoughts on a lot of limited edition palettes and value sets that have come out for the 2015 Holiday Season. But I am simply not having enough time to extensively research on the sets I want to include. Instead, for now, allow me to share my 2^nd pick from these very tempting gift items! Meanwhile, I am absolutely loving “Bite Beauty Rewind“ set which was my very first choice…check it out here!

Today I am talking about this year’s Sephora Favorites Superstars (It’s going to be a long post :-) )! I love these Sephora Favorites Sets although my interest level drops if it costs me more than 50 bucks! :- ) But when I was going through all holiday sets from different companies, this set interested me the most primarily for these reasons -

• Out of all the sets, I found that this gives me the most return for my money- quality and quantity wise.
• Sephora included some of the best and most popular products. A lot of which I never tried.
• Beauty Blender and Stila Eyeliner are some of my holy grail products.

Let’s talk about the price. It is a Sephora Favorite so it is obviously a good deal! You can find it in Sephora Retail stores and on Sephora.com at a price of $75. It is marketed to be of $207 value set I followed my own method and per my calculation the value of this kit is 212$ (220$ if you consider the price of Smashbox Primer in travel size). Here is the price break down :-)

Product	Amount in Kit	Amount in Full-Size	Full-Size Price (USD)	Value in Kit (USD)
Beautyblender® original	Full Size	-	20	20
NARS Dual Intensity Eyeshadow in Himalia	Full Size	0.05 oz.	29	29
Urban Decay Eye shadow in Lounge	Full Size	0. 05 oz.	19	19
Stila Stay All Day® Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner in Intense Black	Full Size	0.016 oz.	22	22
Touch in Sol Stretchex Stretch Lash Effect Mascara	Full Size	0.24 oz.	22	22
Lancôme DRAMA LIQUI-PENCIL™ Extreme Longwear Eyeliner in Noir Intense	Full Size	0.042 oz.	23	23
Benefit They're Real! Mascara	0.1 oz.	0.3 oz.	24	8
Clinique Chubby Stick Sculpting Highlight	Full Size	0.21 oz.	22	22
Laura Mercier Matte Radiance Highlight	0.06 oz.	0.26 oz.	40	9
Tarte the Sculptor Contouring Face Slenderizer in Park Ave Princess™	0.06 oz.	0.09 oz.	24	16
Tarte The Slenderizer Bamboo Contouring Brush	0.035 oz	Available in doble sized brush	34	12
MAKE UP FOR EVER Step 1 Skin Equalizer Hydrating Primer / Base Step 1 Skin Equalizer	0.16 oz.	1 oz.	36	5.76
Smashbox Photo Finish Primer Water	1 oz.	1oz/3.9 oz	16/32	16/8.2

Basically it is of incredible value. Let’s discuss the products one by one before the post gets 100 pages long :-)

Beauty Blender “the original”: I waited so long to try this! But when I finally did try it, I have been in UTTER love. I have been using this since this Spring. It makes foundation application so darn easy! As instructed I use it little damp to apply my foundation and within a minute I have amazing flawless skin. It works the same way with foundation and BB creams! You need to try this!

MAKE UP FOR EVER Step 1 Skin Equalizer Hydrating Primer / Base Step 1 Skin Equalizer: MUFE is one my most favorite brands! I am disappointed in the size though. You have just a week or at most, 10 day’s worth of product. All the other items in this kit are decently sized. It did a good job as a primer. My makeup held on good, but around my mouth where it typically gets dry the foundation started to break towards the end of the day. I like it but I am not 200% impressed with it yet.

Smashbox Photo Finish Primer Water: Everybody loves this product. I was not sold on this first but now that I have been using it constantly, I am slowly falling in love. It has a nice spritzer that works great in dispersing even amount. I have used it under makeup as well as a setting spray and it does a good job in elongating the wear time of my makeup, including my lipstick :-) I am very much enjoying this right now but I am yet to be impressed enough to recommend this to you to go out and buy it in full size.

Benefit Cosmetics "They're Real! Mascara": Honestly, I am a little annoyed with Sephora for putting this mascara in each and every set. A lot of people love it. I don’t like the plastic bristles and I don’t enjoy how it makes my lashes crisp and separate. But I do grab it when I need to wear waterproof mascara and also when I am photographing for the blog. So while it is not my most favorite, I still find use for it!

NARS Dual Intensity Eyeshadow in “Himalia”: Thanks to my value set addiction, my NARS collection is slowly growing :-) :-) :-) I have shared many times before that I find the most pleasure while playing with colors when makeup is concerned; so neutral shades like this do not excite me as much as a blue eyeshadow. But now that I have a more conventional work environment and can wear a bit of makeup every day, I am finding “Himalia” to be extremely useful! It’s a perfect “One-shade-and-done” lid color! I thought it would be much lighter but I am so glad that it’s a little deeper. It is a taupey bronze in metallic finish. VERY pigmented, very easy to apply and blend, even with my finger. It does stay a decent time without primer; with primer it has a wear time of around 6-7 hrs. and then it starts to fade while still looking gorgeous. I adore the packaging - minimal, elegant, has a magnetic closure and I love the embossing on the eyeshadow itself :-) I have slowly started to ponder that NARS rocket-high prices may just be justifiable.

Urban Decay Eyeshadow in “Lounge”: Such an elegant metallic duo-chrome shade and Urban Decay does the best metallic. It has an intense olive green/teal shimmer on a coppery reddish brown base. It is a fun, fancy color to swatch and to use :-) And it is sophisticated enough to use it subtly for an everyday look. It is not crazy pigmented so I need to use 2-3 layers to get an even and intensely pigmented look. I did try using it wet and it looked a little more foiled then using dry! It lasted with the same intensity for more than 10-11 hrs! I will never pay full price considering it is neither an extremely unique nor innovative shade! But the more I am using it the more I am falling in love.

Stila Stay All Day® Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner in “Intense Black”: I got this last December in one similar set exclusive to Sephora inside JC Penny. It’s one of my MOST favorite eyeliners. I use it in rotation with some of my other favorites. Its waterproof, has a felt tip and the finish is slightly glossy. It applies smoothly and truly stays all day. Whenever I want to ensure that I get a quick and easy wing liner that needs to last all day, this is what I use. I simply adore this liner.

Touch in Sol Stretchex Stretch Lash Effect Mascara Sol Mascara: It is a lightweight lengthening mascara and it does give serious length to my tiny lashes! It is not volumizing. I am not crazy about extreme volume or curls on my lashes so that’s fine with me. I love the wand too; it is little curved, not too big or too small. Perfect for my small hooded eyes. Sephora website says that you can remove it with warm water, but no! You need a strong makeup remover for this.

Lancôme DRAMA LIQUI-PENCIL™ Extreme Longwear Eyeliner in Noir Intense: This a fairly new product line from Lancôme. There some kickass shades like pink and yellow and periwinkle blue :-) This is the black shade and it stayed for a long time on my upper lash line. But on my waterline, I have to keep applying it for 2-3 times to get the color to cling on to it. It did not tug and it did not hurt to apply that many times but it was annoying. Once I could get an even application it did last at least for 5-6 hrs. I have similar types of eyeliner so it is by no means a must-have product for me. But I can still never have too many black eye liners as I am always going to use them!

Clinique Chubby Stick Sculpting Highlight: Before I tried Champagne Pop from Becca, highlighters never interested me. Now I want to try everything :-) It’s a giant cream highlighter, extremely pale baby pink shade with very minuscule shimmer speckles…nothing too metallic though! Very creamy and super blendable. Being so creamy, I did not expect it to last long but I could see this glowing beautifully at the very end of the day! It’s a strong and extremely pigmented highlighter! If you like a subtle, simple makeup I would not recommend this, but personally I am loving it!

Laura Mercier Matte Radiance Highlight: So many beauty addicts over the world are mad about this highlighter. I have never been interested in it mostly because of its steep price. But I am always excited to try things that are so widely loved, that too at a fraction of full size price. I really love the size of it, it is so much better than the full-size. In my experience baked product has a nice fluffy and creamier type of formula. But I felt this one is a little dry when swatched. It applies a bit dry as well! It would be perfect for oily skin but I personally prefer a less dry formula. Having said that I have to agree that I am really enjoying it. It’s very pigmented, blendable and long lasting.

Tarte the Sculptor Contouring Face Slenderizer in Park Ave Princess™: I love cream products in general; it is so much easier to work with my dry skin. I don’t have a huge interest in contouring but once again it is proving to be very useful in giving my face a little bit of shape especially when I am photographing new product application for this blog. At first look it appears slightly warm for contouring but when applied on the face it does not show that warm on my skin tone. It’s very creamy, easy to blend out and stays nicely for 5-6 hrs.

Tarte The Slenderizer Bamboo Contouring Brush: This is the cutest mini brush you would ever see… and it totally works! It’s very useful in placing the contour color. I was also able to blend the tarte contour I got with this set. I did have to go back with a more fluffy brush to blend it more. 

Points to complain about: We all need to write a petition to Sephora requesting them not to include “They're Real! Mascara” in each and every value set :-P It’s not a horrible product but I don’t want to see the same old products repeated in these sets (e.g., Too Faced Melted Peony Liquid Lipstick, Sephora Cream Lip Stain in Peony, Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Bronzer etc.). I also wish they’d include a blush or maybe a lip product instead of 2 mascaras and 2 highlighters. That would have made this the most perfect value set for this holiday season! But it still is a great set. Out of the 13 products, 8 are full size and they are some of the most loved products available in Sephora. Apart from MUFE, rests of the mini products are also decently sized. I am thoroughly enjoying at least 70% of the products, and performance wise not one product has disappointed me. Overall, this is a set worth looking into :-)

What have you been shopping for the holiday season? :-)

Love

~Arrru 

Durga Puja in the Windy City!!

Xubha Bijoyadoxomi folks! For the last few days, various parts of India have been celebrating the festival of Dusshera or DurgaPuja. I am from Assam and there we call it "Durga Puja"! This Indian festival spans the first 10 days, but celebrated primarily from 6th to the 10th day of the bright lunar fortnight in the Hindu calendar month of Ashvin, It's an annual affair where we celebrate the power of GOOD over evil. This religious festival marks the victory of Hindu Goddess Durga over the evil and terrifying Buffalo demon Mahishasura! Apart from the religious significance it's an occasion to celebrate life with family and friends, adorning self with new clothes and indulging in lot of sweet and savory delicious eats! Every year different puja committees attempt to create the most unique idols to present the story of Durga and Mahishasura fight! It's a 3-day holiday back home and even with the busy work-week I have been having here it’s almost impossible to miss the excitement and state of happiness that grips the entire state during these festivities! It has made me very nostalgic! The chaos, infinite number of people hopping from pandal to pandal in their beautiful new dresses, sounds of bangles, toy guns, kids playing with whistles, and of course unbelievable traffic congestion! The sound of dhol and dhak, the warm cozy agarbati fragrances, the Diya lightings and red sindur bindis...I miss! I miss the chaos and I miss those hundreds of people! I miss assisting mom in the kitchen, I miss how she always buys a few big balloons while pandal hopping and then carries them home ...I miss getting dressed up with my sister, I miss my father's smile when he tries the new kurta we forcefully gifted him and refuses to admit that he actually really really likes it!!​

It's not Durga Puja untill you have hazzy yellowish click in front of the mandap :-)

Last two year I have been visiting India on vacation around this time and it was incredible! Naturally I have been extremely nostalgic :-) But the best way to fight it is to try to make the most of what you have! So, I got together with the very few friends I have in Chicago and planned to attend a Puja being organized in a nearby city. In the hopes of being able to return home early I reached work by 6 am this morning! Me and my friend were overly excited to wear our ethnic dresses as we don’t get enough occasions to wear them! She wore a beautiful beautiful Assam Silk Mekhela Sador in Maroon and Beige! And I sported a Cotton and wool mixed Mekhela Sador in vibrant purple hand woven by my incredibly talented mom! I was delighted to see same type of God and Goddess idols in the Puja that I would see in home. The atmosphere was not as chaotic and noisy as I am used to but it was really nice. It was peaceful and homely! The food served after the Aarti which is known as "bhog" was incredible. But of course, we were still hungry so when we got back, both of us quickly whipped up a few items for a simple yet scrumptious dinner! Here you can see Assamese style Ghuguni and Fula Luci, that we made, and the Jalepis that were brought from store! Jalepi is a quintessential Durga Puja celebration sweet! You gotta have jalepis! Overall, the day went mighty fine :-) I am not an overly religious person, but the happiness and celebratory mode this festivity brings about is what matters the most!!

 

Puja in Santa Clara (pc: Awesome friends) :-)

Puja in Santa Clara (pc: Awesome friends) :-)

Happy Puja folks! Hope you enjoyed and I wish everyone of you a prosperous and fun filled year ahead!!!

Love

~Arrru

Holiday 2015: Bite Beauty "Best Beauty Rewind" set Review & Swatches!!!

Yay, holiday season is here :-) ! At least cosmetics industry likes to think so; it is flooded with holiday special limited-edition value kits since few weeks! I have been exercising great restraint in not buying every single tempting product, but there are few deals that I just cannot pass on! “Best Bite Rewind” is one such irresistible set for me!!

Each holiday season, among other items, Bite Beauty brings out 4 deluxe size lip products in a very adorable gift-ready tin box. I have been thoroughly using “Quince”, “Rhubarb” and “Cranberry” High Pigment Pencils from last year’s “Best Bite” set; I have a full review here. This year’s set is called “Best Bite Rewind”; it is exclusively available in Sephora. It is retailed at a price of $25 and comes with 4 deluxe size (0.031 oz. each) matte crème lip crayons out of which 3 are limited-edition shades. Considering that the full-size costs $24 for 0.05 oz., you are getting products worth more than 2 regular crayons and you get to try 4 different shades! It’s a great value for your money. Given that I use Bite lippies quite often in my every day routine, it is a great buy for me personally.

Packaging is adorable. I have not yet put last year’s tin-box to use, but I will someday :-) This year’s tin is a bit longer comparatively and much more appealing because it is in “red”-my favorite color. It has nice mirror inside so it makes a perfect little makeup storage box for your purse; for mini items of course :-). I can definitely see these boxes as decorative item around my house. The shades on the paper cover of the tin box are not true to the actual shades though, so don’t pay a lot of attention to that. The crayons are in typical grey rubberized Bite Beauty packaging, they tend to capture the oil-greasiness from your hands and can get a little dirty but I am ok with that. The only complaint I have is that the crayons are not color coordinated with the shades; not quite user-friendly when you are in a hurry.

I love their Luminous Crème Lipstick and High Pigment Pencil formulas. They are moisturizing, has strong staying power and very comfortable on the lips. As the name suggests, these matte crème lip crayons are matte but they still have a nice satin-y appearance to the finish. If you hate “matte” mattes, these are for you! Overall, these are VERY pigmented, applies very smoothly and I can get an even opaque application in just one swipe. You can also layer it without any patchiness. I have found that the wear time is different for light and darker shades. I will share more in the following paragraphs.

Cafe (Peachy-Brown Nude, Limited-edition): This is the lightest shade in the bunch and still it is not as pale as last year’s. It looks much better with a darker lip-liner but if I want I can wear it on its own too. I am not a “nude lipstick” kinda girl but I do like this one :-) It fades on me after 5-6 hrs. but it still stays even while fading.

Torte (Brown-toned Rose, Limited-edition): I don’t see any brown in it but yes, this is your everyday natural rose shade. Love it. Formula-wise all 4 of these perform the same. But staying power is similar as “Café”. Among the other shades I have from Bite Beauty, “Meritage” is almost similar but with more of a glossy finish.

Coulis (Raspberry Red, Limited-edition): Coulis is a very preppy vibrant red and I love my reds. It appears very neutral in tone to me. It is extremely comfortable on the lips. I wore it to office the other day; my first time wearing red to office :-); it was a busy day and I did not even have the time to apply lip-balm the whole day. I was pleasantly surprised to see it slightly faded, but very good and even pigmentation on the lips after almost 11 hrs. of wear. I am VERY impressed.

Aubergine (Eggplant, Permanent): If you have checked last few of my blogposts you may notice that I have been enjoying my recent exploration into few unfamiliar lip-color schemes such as purple and dark vampy shades! From the cover, “Aubergine” appears so much purple-y, but it has A LOT OF berry in it. I am typically scared of dark lips but this flatters my skin tone. I love it! It has stayed for 9-10 hrs. on me.

I absolutely love the color range in this set. They are versatile and will suit a wide array of skin tones. And when it comes to formula and performance, Bite Beauty has never disappointed me. I have lot of lippies from them than I can ever finish but I cannot seem to stop buying them :-) If you are just starting out, this is a great set to test out. It also makes a perfect little gift! These sets do sell out pretty quickly so if you want to get them you should hurry :-) I highly recommend it!!

Hope this helps you. I have a few holiday-related posts planned for the coming weeks; stay tuned.

Lots of Love,

~Arrru

Influenster ::: YSL Black Opium Voxbox

Today I am sharing my thoughts on YSL "Black Opium" Eau de Perfum. First of all, I love the name - its sultry and seductive-just like the fragrance itself. I received the product free from Influenster for testing purpose. I am not a big fan of subscription boxes. But if someone is sending me free stuff I will thoroughly enjoy the opportunity :-)

I know this is a free item but for some reason I was hoping it would be a bit bigger. But this is 0.25 fl.oz. is size which is typically same as the deluxe bottle that Sephora some time offers as their 250 point reward perk. I have to admit- if not for Influenster I would not have picked this to try for myself. YSL is still an expensive brand for me :-)

As found in Sephora this is described as an addictive, floral scent with Coffee Accord, Orange Blossom, Cedar Wood Essence and Patchouli Essence notes. I am not very proficient is describing fragrances :-) ,  forgive me for that! It is quite a heavy, deep and rich fragrance. I can definitely detect a floral and yet kind of heavy sweetness in it. Staying power is very impressive; I can still find its presence on me at the end of the day. I have never been interested in fragrances before so I have not tried many! But thanks to little tiny samples with purchases from Sephora and Ulta, I have tested enough to realize that I am not the biggest fan of very rich heavy spicy notes. Light, clean and floral is what I prefer! I do like sexy spicy noted once in a while but they tend to give me headache when used rather regularly. I don't see myself buying a full-size but I do enjoy this bottle. I know very well that a lot of you out there will really enjoy this fragrance. 

By the way, the packaging is beyond gorgeous! It is a beautiful bottle in black with diamond like textured design. There is a clear window which I think is a nice touch! I am totally enjoying the luxe feeling I get while using this :-) So thank you again, Influenster. I look forward to more surprises :-)

Check out Influenster if you wanna try it out...it's totally free :-)

Love,
~Arrru

Quick look on "ARDENCY INN" Modster Eyeliner Trio

Sometime last year Jaclyn Hill mentioned this value kit from “Ardency Inn” in one of her videos. It had a beautiful medium deep blue, a black and a gold. If it is already not obvious from my Instagram profile, let me declare here- Blue is one of my most favorite colors to wear on my eyes. If it were not for my conventional workplace, I would sport “Blue” on my eyes every single day! I still wear “sophisticated” blue to work once a week :-) :-)

Let me handle the distractive effect that blue eyeshadow has on me and focus on this set! The set with blue was out of stock (when Jaclyn Hill says something is her favorite it sells out like hot cakes!) I waited and waited for that set and Sephora did not restock it. They now have a new set of these “MODSTER Smooth Ride Supercharged Eyeliner” at a price of $29. There are 3 full size pencils with 0.04 oz. of products each. If you buy these separately it will cost $57…so basically you are paying half the price. Isn’t that awesome? The colors in the set are - Black, Coffee and Gold (all are permanent shades. This set will definitely appeal to a larger set of makeup wearers because all these colors are incredible to use day to day. Everyone needs a black and a brown in their arsenal and gold is always useful to add a touch of glam to any look. But if you are a makeup hoarder like me, you may already have similar shades!

Ardency Inn is a makeup brand evolved around downtown New York music scene - read more about it here. It does not have thousand different products but the ones they have are quite popular. This is my first product from the brand, I did buy Modster Manuka Honey Enriched Pigments in “Royal” but I have not worn it yet. Because Jaclyn praised these eyeliners so much I had really high hopes. It was really creamy and smudge-proof. Very easy to wear, goes on really smooth and the colors are quite pigmented. I expected these to stay on my water line for the WHOLE day, but unfortunately it was not the case. It lasted for 4-5 hrs. perfectly and then it faded and started vanishing! It was disappointing. Apart from that I loved the formula.

Black: If you ask me, a girl or boy can never have too many black eyeliners! Every little girl in India back in my day would learn to use a black deep kajol pencil as some very first makeup items. I adore darkly lined sultry eye looks - so black is something I find super useful.

Gold: This one has a gold base and dense gold speckles throughout it. I love to wear gold on my eyelids…it looks flattering against my skin tone. It does not look as flattering as eyeliner but it I do like to have options!

Coffee: I don’t find brown eyeliners very appealing! It’s too basic for me…ha ha! But I do think that it is the most useful shade in the bunch. On my eyes, because it is similar to my skin tone it is almost undetectable. But for a wide variation of skin tones “Coffee” would be great for everyday use. 

Overall, the set is a great bang for your bucks. But because it did not give me CRAZY long wear, I decided to return it. I have similar shades in similar formulas so I tried to be good and not spend my money on something I don’t need. Having said that, I would surely mention that if the blue set comes back, I will definitely stock that up!

Love,

~Arrru

Review and Swatches ::: Anastasia Beverly Hills Shadow Couture World Traveler Palette

First of all, big thank you to my sweetheart sister for summoning me to find her a “small” eyeshadow palette with silver, gold, light blue, pink, gold and black shades that would supposedly be perfect for travel! Pheww!! :-) After I bought this for her she was kind enough ;-) to let me use and review it here before giving it to her when I go home next :-) Suddenly I remember our childhood days; we did not let each other borrow anything at all!! We certainly have grown up :-)

So yes, I bought the palette for her considering it has majority of the shades she needed and like a real “evil big sister” I have been constantly using it from the first day :-) At a retail price of $30, you get 12 versatile shades in matte, shimmer and metallic finishes. Pink Champagne is 0.023 oz. in weight while rest are 0.025 oz. each. You also get a double ended brush which is actually quite useful. Compared to other high end brands this is a very affordable palette with amazing performance. I love the packaging. The design is very classy and minimalistic. It’s very compact too! It’s not extremely strong in built, so I will recommend you to take a little bit of care while you pack this in your makeup bag for travelling.

Closer look :-)

The best thing about this palette is the shade selection. There are peachy beige, black, medium and dark brown mattes which take care of your crease and blending shades. Then you have some vibrant pop of colors like azure and heirloom…and then some graceful shimmer and metallic shades that you can use for every day wear or even to glam up any look. I have travelled with this once or twice and it is so easy to achieve different cohesive eye looks using ONLY this palette! It does not even need a lot of effort to come up with different eye looks! I really cannot praise the Anastasia Beverly Hills (ABH) team enough for creating a palette that truly is “travel friendly”!! Good job!!

For the price point, these shadows really perform very well! Matte shades blends effortlessly and without any fall out! The shimmers are gorgeous too! Metallic shades have some fall out when you use them dry but while wet they are very forgiving!! “Spoiled” is a bit weak but rest of them are quite pigmented. I always wear some kind of primer with my eye shadows. These stay on my eyelids for 7-8 hrs. without fading with Mac Paint Pot underneath it. And oh, they can be worn wet or dry. Keep on reading for more detail on individual shades!

Soft Peach (matte): Very pastel peach which appears “beige” to my eyes. Very blendable and pigmented; I use it to blend out my crease color as well as highlighter under the brow bone.

Morocco (matte): ABH describes it as deep burnt orange and I agree but I personally tend to view it as a very warm medium brown with a strong red under tone  :-) Nonetheless, it is a VERY beautiful and quite useful for my skin tone; I have been constantly using it as my crease color.  Definitely one of my favorite shades from this palette.

Heirloom (sparkle): Such a beautiful shade! A lot of pink-purple micro glitters on a medium purple base. It does not have a lot of fall out but you do lose a few glitters when you apply it on your eyes, the sparkle still shows though! Pigment wise it is just a tiny bit weak and it does not stay as some of the others. Little bit powder-y but the fall out does not occur when applying the eyelids. Quality wise it is not best in this palette but it’s a very pretty shade.

Bellini (Satin): Beautiful peachy gold! It goes on easily and stays on the lid for decent 6-7 hrs. This type of gold suits every skin tone; especially on olive skin tones like mine. I do have similar shades from other brands so I am not very very curious about this one hence have not used it as much the rest, but I do love the shade.

Pink Champagne (Glitter): Shimmery pink champagne with lot of micro glitters. It does need 2-3 coats to get opacity while applied dry and there are some fall out. But I wore it “wet” the other day and it looked incredible. It was easy to apply, there were no fall out and it stayed on the lid till late night after surviving a hot day of outdoor tourist-y activities! I did not think I would enjoy this shade as much as I have been!

Chic (Shimmer): It is just taupy grey, and it looks very similar to Pink Champagne in finish and appearance. Personally I am not a big fan of colors like this but it is useful for every day wear! This also comes handy when you want to add a little glam on your everyday look.

Spoiled (Metallic): Lots of gold micro glitters on Peach base. Pigment wise it is the weakest but I bet it will perform well when wet. It looks great as all over lid shade.

Fudge (Matte): Deep warm chocolate brown. Another one of my favorite! It can be used as crease color and also to intensify the outer v area to add depth to any look. It’s extremely blendable and incredibly pigmented.

Azure (Metallic): Very vibrant blue; and if you scroll through my Instagram profile you will immediately noticed how much I love “Blue”! It is one of favorite shades to wear, especially on my eyes. This applies well but it does need 3-4 coats to get a truly opaque coverage. I really hoped this would have been a little bit deeper and a little bit more pigmented.

Intense Gaze (Satin): Such a beautiful shimmery bronzy coral. I totally LOVE this shade. Applies very well, blends easily and it stayed strong from 7 in the morning till I reach home around 5.30 pm before starting to fade. This shade along with “Morocco”, “Fudge” and “Noir” makes such a warm and deep Fall appropriate eye look; I have been sporting that a lot lately.

Shades used: Morocco, Soft Peach, Fudge, Noir, Azure, Metallic and Spoiled.

Metallic (Metallic): This is such an intense unique gold; it kind of reminds me of “Liquid Gold” pigment from Makeup Geek. It’s overwhelmingly pigmented, applies really well and has the strongest staying power among the bunch. Because it is so pigmented it is a little difficult to incorporate in everyday look, but I do LOVE this shade.

Noir (Matte): Thank you ABH for not forgetting to include a black shade in the palette. Every palette needs a black shade. It is a tiny bit dry but very pigmented. Blends well and stays well :-)

Shades used: Morocco, Fudge, Soft Peach, Intense Gaze, Heirloom, Metallic and
absolutely "no mascara" :-)

Doble Ended Brush: One side is a stiff small dome brush which can be used to add crease colors. Because of the smaller size, it is easier to control it and add the shade exactly where you want. Other end is more like a blending brush with longer brush. The bristles are very smooth and very useful. I am very happy about the fact that I was able to create a whole look with only this brush. The small ribbon does not seem much, but it is actually useful in pulling out the brush from the slot very comfortably. This might be the only brush included in a palette that I have truly love. 

I have been never been interested in any of the previous palettes ABH released. I felt like they have been putting out the similar shades in different variations. I am sure some of the shades in this palette are repeat occurrence too, but they did a real good job in curating the shades. At a price point of $30, I definitely think it is one of the best well-rounded palettes to come out this year. It is a Limited edition palette and looks like it is not available in Sephora or Ulta anymore! But it is still available in ABH website. Grab yours while you can - I highly, highly recommend it!

Love,

~Arrru

First Day of Fall with Bite Beauty "Barberry"

Am I excited about “Fall”? Hell no! But has that deterred me from trying out new Fall-exclusive Beauty launches? Absolutely not! I am not the biggest fan of Fall because to me it is a reminder that WINTER is just around the corner! I never liked vampy lip-shades as well! But for some reason this year I have suddenly become so interested in Fall makeup trends; especially dark lip colors! Bite Beauty recently came out with a new range of lipsticks called “Frozen Berries” that are inspired by flash-frozen wild berries! Each shade is dark and fall appropriate but my eyes were stuck on “Barberry”! It was sold out online but I am glad that I was able to find it in my local Sephora inside JC Penny!

Bite Beauty Lip Formulas are undoubtedly one of best formulas I have tried. But recently I have been a little annoyed with them; no personal reason though! They have been releasing out different limited-edition collections which they are retailing at more than the average price of their regular products. They had a new line called Butter Cream lipsticks where they hand cut the bullets in order to retain utmost creaminess. These cost $28 for the same 0.15 oz. of product. Their Lip Lab Limited Release Crème Deluxe Lipstick costs a whopping $36 for the same 0.15 oz. of product. I simply ADORE their rouge crème lipstick formula and I am truly not sure if it can get any better! I personally have not tried these new ranges of products but it seems people like them. I am however still skeptical and a little bit annoyed with the higher price of these new releases.

But just when I thought I am over my Bite Beauty obsession, they released these “Frozen Berries” lipsticks. And they retail at the same price of $24 for 0.15 oz. of product. 5 rich fall/winter shades in Juniper (deep fuschia), Barberry (muted orchid), Plum (rich eggplant), Elderberry (deep purple), Black Cherry (deep oxblood)! The formula is called “Matte Crème” which is described as pigmented and highly moisturizing and is formulated without Parabens, Sulfates and Phthalates. I personally did not feel a lot of difference between this and their regular rouge crème lipstick formula. The packaging is same dark grey rubberized packaging. Very elegant! The only thing I don’t like is that you cannot really distinguish the lipstick shade from outside. It is difficult to grab the right shade without opening the cap, especially when you keep collecting these :-)

Like all of their lip products, this formula is smooth and easy to apply! It’s very comfortable on the lips and weightless and you get the feeling that you are wearing a high end lipstick! It is described as matte but in application as well as finish I don’t find it utterly and drying-ly matte. You can see in the swipe that there is a very subtle metallic hint to the finish; I actually really enjoy that. I think it gives a different dimension to the appearance! 
As I have mentioned before in this blog, Bite Beauty lipsticks has impressive staying power for crème lipsticks. This also lasted for around 5 to 7 hrs beautifully, after that it slightly fades! “Barberry” is without doubt a very unique and complex color. It is described as a muted orchid and it IS a muted orchid :-) In some light it appears to be a grey type of purple but in sunlight it is a brighter richer beautiful violet. And like other purple shades it does not make my teeth look yellow. I am totally LOVING this shade.

I had a pretty hectic day today at work with some field visits but otherwise I would have totally worn this to welcome the official start for Fall weather :-)… This is a limited edition line so grab it while it lasts…and Barberry was available available online on Sephora till late night yesterday but it is currently showing out of stock. If you are interested I suggest you opt for email notification so that whenever it is in stock again, you get to be the first one to know :-) 

If you are interested, I have done a pretty lengthy review of “Cin Cin” from their line back when I started blogging regularly. “Cin Cin” is one of my top 5 favorite lipsticks. But because of the steep price I always end up buying their value sets rather than expanding my collection of regular rouge crème lipsticks. I am so glad that I waited this long for this collection to come out. Now my “Cin Cin” has a pretty little sister :-)

Love,

~Arrru