Candy Yum Yum Dupe

If you missed out on MAC's Candy Yum Yum lipstick, which came out in the Quite Cute collection a few months back, then you should check out NYX's Matte lipstick in Shocking Pink! It is the closest dupe I have found so far, and it's similar in just about every way. The only difference I could see was in the tube...

Shocking Pink, on the left LOOKS darker and less neon than CYY. 

In this hand swatch, Candy Yum Yum is the top color and Shocking Pink is the bottom one. Can't really see a difference in colors :) The texture of both is matte so the feel of it is also the same. 

On my lips CYY is on the top and Shocking Pink is on the bottom. No notable differences here either!

Try out the Shocking Pink lippie and see for yourself, you can buy it for less than $5.00 on

Cherryculture.com, NYX.com or PorkDaisy.com to name a few :) 

Enjoy!

Sleek Collective Haul & Review

I am soooooo excited to show you guys these products I got from Sleek! I am such a big fan of their products right now and from what I have seen I know I need MORE! In case you have been hiding under a rock lately, Sleek is a U.K. cosmetics brand, and from my understanding it is a drugstore product. Kind of like Wet n Wild shadows have been so popular over here, I think it's sort of the same thing. It is good quality and very affordable. It can be ordered on their website at http://www.sleekmakeup.com or off of Ebay. You will most likely have to pay a bit more than you normally would for shipping as this does come from the U.K. I have not been able to find an Ebay seller who has Sleek in the United States.
Oh, well :P

So to begin my haul.... I came across a blog sale which had a depotted Sleek contour kit in Light and I decided to try it out. I payed $7, which included shipping. When I received my package the kit didn't seem special at all, and I missed out on the nifty Sleek packaging because it had been depotted.

The highlight color looked a little "off" to me but after swatching these babies I fell in LOVE. The contouring side may be a little dark for lighter skinned ladies as it is very rich and pigmented. This is what I expected MAC's Matte Bronze to be like (MAC is much much lighter.) I didn't see any red in this brown and I like it so far for contouring, but I do have to use a light hand. A little bit of this will go a long way! Which also goes for the highlighting powder. This is very creamy to to the touch, not at all powdery or chalky. It felt very smooth going on and it blends like a dream. It reminds me a bit of butter -well the texture anyways! And not in a greasy way either, lol.. It's a pearly beige color in my opinion and it would flatter just about any skin tone.

Swatches in fake light: Contour on left and highlight on right.

Here is what it looks like next to MAC Harmony (top-far left) and MAC Blunt (top- middle). The Sleek brown is in the square pan on the right hand side, also on the top row. 

Overall, this is a great product and I definitely will be repurchasing. I already have my eye on this kit in Medium, so I can try out some different shades. 

Second, I am a big swapping fanatic on Makeup Alley and had a great swap with someone in the U.K. I sent her some American candy and my Quite Cute lipstick for her Peachstock lipstick and a Sleek palette. She was also kind enough to send us some candy but we ate it as soon as we opened the package (lol me and the girls) so no photo ops, sorry! I got my first taste of some Sleek eye shadows in the very popular "Storm" palette.

Awesome colors! I was surprised on the pigmentation of these shadows and the texture... i've never experienced such creaminess before. With the softness of these comes A LOT of crumbly fall out on the palette as you can tell. I learned very quickly not to press so hard against the shadows because you really don't need to. Although these are very pigmented and you don't need a lot of the product on the brush I can see that I will probably end up hitting pan quickly because product has a tendency to get wasted because of the softness. I still love this palette though and I think most of the colors are gorrrrgeous! I like that there is a good mix of mattes and shimmer/satin types and the range of colors. 

Sorry for the swatches looking so washed out! It was a very cloudy day and I had to use my bathroom light. These colors are a lot richer in person. This palette is $10 on the Sleek website, and completely worth it.

Lastly, I reinforced my new Sleek addiction by getting a set of the new Carribean collection items which include the Curacao eye shadow palette, the Bonair pout polish and the blush in Aruba. OH EM GEE! I got this TODAY and I am still drooling. Seriously, hands down one of the most interesting items I own in my makeup collection.

I am going to start off with the pout polish in "Bonair." Bright tangerine colored lip conditioner/balm, and it was the least favorite of the products. I love the color but the feel wasn't moisturizing really, and the smell is comparable to burnt plastic, lol. I did see in other reviews for the polishes that the smell was a problem for a lot of people but I hoped they were just wrong. They weren't! Smells funky! :/ Sleek should really fix this issue and maybe come up with a better formula because the colors they sell look really pretty and different.

The packaging is really cute and chic though, I love the lightness of the jar and the design on top of the lid. Very cute but I won't be getting any other shades of the lip polish, which is too bad I was looking forward to it. These are $7.80 in USD. The ingredients include  jojoba, avocado, and sweet almond oil and has SPF15.

This blush in "Aruba" is definitely NOT for the timid. It is a bright, almost neon orange color in the pan which screams for attention. It can be as equally bright once applied on the skin but once blended it out it is workable. I would recommend this for medium to darker skinned people because of the intensity and pigmentation of it. It is a beautiful color in idea but it can get clown looking if you apply too much or don't blend enough. I would also say it's a good catch for a makeup collector as it is a very original color as far as blushes go. I compared it to the NARS Taj Mahal and the NARS is a lot darker and more red toned than this blush. This is a very true orange, no burnt effect here.. just very bright! $6.50 USD on the Sleek website.

Last in the Carribean trio is this delicious palette: "Curacao." 12 stunning tropical shades, some mattes and some shimmers remains true to what I saw in the Storm palette. Pigmentation, creamy texture and great payoff. I can't comment right now on the staying power of any of the Sleek products I have purchased, as I have not had any time or an occasion to try a look with them but I am so excited to see what I can come up with. I like this palette a lot better than the Storm one just because the colors look more unique in this palette. Isn't the packaging cute?

Wow! The orange glossy swatch on the far, right hand top corner is of the Bonair pout polish.

Top row L-R: Tequila Sunrise, Martini, Blue Hawaiian, Bloody Mary, Screwdriver, and Green Iguana.

Bottom row L-R: Apples Midori, Blue Lagoon, Purple Haze, Green Martini, Singapore Sling and Espresso Martini.

My favorites are Tequila Sunrise, Green Iguana and Green Martini.

Only two stood out as being harder to get good color from: Bloody Mary and Espresso Martini. I had to swatch a bit harder to get the color to show up dark enough.

Taken in natural light. Sigh. This palette is $10.50 on their website. I paid around $30 for everything in this package on Ebay not including shipping (which wasn't too much, and I got it within a week of ordering.) If you're interested in getting the seller's info, please let me know!

I can't wait to play around with these some more and hopefully come up with some looks to post on this blog. I am very sorry this post became as long as it has, but I didn't want to miss any details. Now I really feel like I need a good drink... hello happy hour ;)

Wise Words

My friend sent me this in an email, I couldn't agree more!

If you're wondering why this pic is up, it's called sarcasm! 

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Please share, and remember these in upcoming elections!

Nails of the Week

A little messy but here goes! 

First, I used two coats of OPI's "You Don't Know Jacques," the shiny one - not the matte one. Secondly, I used one coat of the OPI Black Shatter polish. I finished up the mani with a clear coat by CHI.

This is a bit dark for Summer, but I generally go with darker, more serious colors throughout the year. I absolutely love the brown in YDKJ and the black shatter just adds some fun to it! 

L'oreal Paris The One Sweep Scultping Blush Duo

One word. Fail. Seriously, this is one of the worst products I have encountered in a while. I had very high hopes for this new product, as I am in search of the perfect sculpting duo at all times! I have been really obsessed with finding really good sculpting or contouring shades and I thought this would be a good thing to try out. I had originally went into CVS looking for the new Milani neon eye shadow palette but they didn't have it.

But like I said, this was a huge fail and I don't recommend that anyone spends money on this. I would think that for this price a drugstore item should deliver some pigmentation but I COULD NOT get it to show up on my skin. I rubbed and rubbed with my fingers and nada. Soooo disappointing. 

I got the color Flush (830), which has the light taupey brown as the contour shade and on the blush side it is a deep rose pink that LOOKED gorgeous. They had two other blush shades at the store, one was a peach and the other was a light baby pink. I almost got the peach one but thank goodness I did not waste my time with it. I also believe that the contour shade is the same in all three duos, but I could be mistaken. So, yes while these colors look gorgeous in the pan the pigmentation once I TRIED to apply was horrendous. See below!

Seriously... I packed it on and this is what shows up. For reference I am NW25/NW30 skintone. The top swatch is the blush and the bottom (if you can see it!) is the contour shade. I reallllly tried to make this work but it just didn't! I'm not that dark either... and for $14.79 I think I will be returning it to the store tomorrow!

Animal Shelter Inc., in Sterling MA: Please watch video!

Please see this video first, thank you so much for doing this Brooke... Everyone please donate whatever you can! The giveaway ends on July 29th, in three weeks but you can donate whenever! 

Check out this no-kill shelter's website here.