Review + Swatches: Urban Decay Loose Pigments

PRODUCT(S)
Urban Decay Loose Pigments in
Shag
Smog
Rockstar
Goddess

AVAILABILITY
HauteLook tends to sell these the cheapest at around $2-5 when a Urban Decay sale ever emerges. Otherwise at Urban Decay online site, in stores (Sephora & Ulta) might still carry these at retail prices ($20), not sure if they were phased out...

COMPARISON
In terms of product, it's similar to MAC Pigments although for price and product, MAC is much cheaper and contains more product than the UDLPs.

IN DETAIL

Shag is a champagne shade, a golden pink mixture with a metallic finish.
Smog is a golden, copper metallic shade - when blended the shade has a dirty brown undertone.
Rockstar is a very dark purple with purple reflect shimmer.
Goddess is a black shade with reflected shimmer.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Well, I got these through my friend who bought them on the HauteLook sale and said she wasn't able to work with them. I happily snatched them away, hella *yoinked*.
I love the outer packaging, I think it's really cute, my favorite thing about Urban Decay but it is very impractical. Not a fan of the small opening and the brush accompanying (photo below) it as it's a bit challenging to get pigment out w/out creating a mess. I always get a mess. The best way to use this is getting a petri-dish and tapping a small amount out.

Shag Loose Pigment

It's very pigmented and the ones I own worked well dry or wet (mixing mediums, water, etc.) Although Smog was a disappointment as it looked to be more golden in the container, blended it came out a dookie brown. Yes, dookie brown. But it maintained some of that golden copper so I'd probably advise to just pat on desired location and blend where you want darken.

Rockstar & Goddess maintained their shimmer reflects when blended so that was lovely.

RECOMMENDATIONSIf you're able to get a hold of these on a HauteLook Urban Decay sale, I'd definitely snag them up if you never tried them. My personal recommendation shade is Rockstar because of the darkened purple and maintaining it's shimmer when blended plus also Shag for those who are into neutrals shades as it's pretty to use anywhere on the lid. Otherwise for full retail price, I'd skip and opt for MAC or mineral pigment sellers.

SWATCHES

Shag, Smog, Goddess, Rockstar - Dry

What are you thoughts on the Loose Pigments - any favorites or rants?

CELLY

Haul: GoFavor, Forever21 + Charlotte Russe Jewerly

Here is my small collective haul from the past two months of jewelry. Or JOORY as I like to say.

GOFAVOR
I saw the replica of House of Harlow necklace in Rai's blog (redirected link to Glam Morena) and said HELL YEAH I'm getting that cheap knock-off, psh what I look like? (besides a cheap person). And saw that she got them off GoFavor.

Anyways, for the most part the website didn't have many selections I personally liked, otherwise I would definitely would have hoarded a lot more than what's seen. Best thing besides the jewerly being cheap is that they offer free shipping with purchase of $15 or more. Shipping took about less than 2 weeks through China Post, fairly quick. Smell was a bit questionable but soon went away after airing it out.

I loved what I got, though. Mind you the 3-finger pyramid ring is not size adjustable nor does it give different size options. I normally wear size 8 in rings and these fit fine in all 4 fingers (minus thumb). And the necklace is a bit on the flimsy side, feels plastic as oppose to the good-quality Joory from Forever21 (joke!). Anyways, can't complain much because they're hella cheap.


Geomtric Bib Necklace at $7.99 - Shop Here
Pyramid Three-Finger Ring at $3.99 - Shop Here
Pyramid Stud Earrings - $0.99/50% off - Shop Here

CHARLOTTE RUSSE
Charlotte always has a buy 2 for $10 jewelry sale - prices have to be between $5-6 to count.
I purchased the necklace last month (December) and it was still available at my location when I went back this past week. I really like the gunmental shade in Joory as just oppose to silver and gold, adds a bit of edge I suppose.



Forever21
I actually bought a lot more Joory late last year that I never posted but it wouldn't be worth mentioning because those items are long gone and out of stock. These two I got this past week.

I'm really into chained bracelets as they're easy to throw on but looks like a lot of bling-blang is going in this pimp wrist of mine. I found the orange chain randomly scattered (oh forever, how you bring nightmares to OCD neat freaks) and the necklace on a small display. The teal necklace is simple and colorful - but can be worn with almost anything casual. The perfect spring accessory without over doing it.


Emerald Heart Necklace - $4.80 Shop Here

You guys know any other similar JOORY stores/online sites that sales items on the cheap?

CELLY

Haul + Swatches: Milani Cosmetics CVS 75% Off Sale

PRODUCT(S)
Milani HD Advance Concealer in #02, #03, #04
Milani Minerals Compact Makeup in #105 Honey Beige
Milani Powder Bronzer #02 Medium
Milani Mineral Blush with Brush in #201 Luminous & #203 Mai-Tai

AVAILABILITY
Sale is currently ongoing for this week at your local CVS.
75% OFF only includes these items (redirect to NouveauCheap) and just an FYI, at my locations the 75% OFF wasn't displayed but when taken to the price-checker, it showed the discount.

Overall I spent $15 dollars with tax on these items. I saved around $48! Crazy!

IN DETAIL
HD Advance Concealer Click, Cover, Correct & Protect Face & Eyes
#02 works well to conceal dark undereye circles because of the pale pink shade that it is, I noticed on myself when swatched - it probably wouldn't serve a great purpose to those of fair skin to even overall skin off but definitely works to hide blemishes for up to caramel skintones.
#03 also works well to conceal dark undereye circles and hide blemishes due to it's salmon color. Reminds me of my Bobbi Brown Color Corrector concealer.
#04 is more on the yellow undertone and works well on olive, tan to medium dark skintones for blemishes and highlighting or having an effect of awakening the eyes. Looks good used to clean around the brows for definition.

Milani Minerals Compact Makeup
Yet to be reviewed.

Milani Powder Bronzer
#02 Medium is a brown with a bit reddish undertone shade (closes to MAC's Brown Script eyeshadow) with a slight shimmer but almost velvet like texture. Fairly soft and easy to work with and very pigmented. I'm excited to really use this product but be careful with heavy hand!

Milani Mineral Blush with Brush
#201 Luminous I was reading how this is a dupe for NARS Orgasm blush and I have to say it looks very similar but I can't agree as I don't own Orgasm. It has shimmery-sheen with a golden undertone, very pretty for everyday usage.
#203 Mai-Tai is like a burnt, coppery red. I have nothing like this shade in my collection which it all more appreciated. Both blushes swatched very easily and great pigmentation (about two layers applied each).

Swatches are at the bottom of the post.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
So thanks to the bloggersphere beauty community whispers, there is a Milani 75% OFF sale I could not skip. I'm really excited to further try the brand without braking the bank because Milani in general is a pretty pricey drugstore brand I never really spurlged on.

I am loving the blushes, bronzers, concea--shoot, everything! I definitely want to go back and get the other 2 mineral blushes that were sold out, and in my opinion - I prefer them a lot more to the Baked Mineral blushes. Also want to get extra of HD Concealers as I feel they are everything right now.

RECOMMENDATIONS
I highly recommend any of the blushes and concealer pens. The bronzer is really nice too and very easy to work with blending-wise. The concealer pens are in my opinion more for women of color that are of olive, tan, caramel complexion. Any lighter or darker is probably not as suitable

COMPARISON
I wanted to compare actual packaging of Milani HD Advance Concealer to YSL Touche Eclat Concealer. Similar beautiful, gold casing and both are click pens and offer the benefit as acting as a highlighting concealer.

Consistency is similar although I do not have swatches on those (sorry) - Milani is a great alternative to the pricey YSL product.


SWATCHES

1. Medium Bronzer 2. Luminous Blush 3. Mai-Tai Blush

1. #02 2. #03 3.#04 HD Advance Concealer

Were you able to get this amazing CVS deal? Any Milani favorites or dislikes?

CELLY