Showcase: OPI & Serena Williams Glam Slam

I picked up a new OPI & Serena Williams Glam Slam set today & decided to swatch what I have for the blog :) 

Spark de Triomphe & White Shatter

Your Royal Shine-Ness & Servin' Up Sparkle (OMGGG the BEST!)

Grape...Set...Match & Servin' Up Sparkle

Pros & Bronze & Love Is A Racket

These each retail for $14.95 and I believe are only available in Ulta stores! I know there are two others, which I plan on eBaying ;)

I also stumbled upon the Pair Em & Scare Em Halloween set! It includes Zom-Body To Love (glow in the dark green) and a Black Shatter for $14.95

It does actually glow in the dark, too! Pretty nifty :D

Showcase: Tarte for True Blood Palette

I will go ahead & start off by saying that I am not a fan of the True Blood series. I simply never took interest in the show & can honestly tell you, I've never even seen an episode. I don't watch much TV to begin with & the whole vampire craze never suited me. But that didn't stop me from totally drooling over the new Tarte for True Blood Palette. I read about this palette online & was actually pretty happy to see it at my local Sephora. So I picked it up yesterday, and today, put it to use.

While I'm not really into the vampire trend, I definitely LOVE the look of the palette. It's edgy & dark in terms of the overall theme. The shadows, too, are primarily dark, vampy shades. 

The palette comes with 17 True Blood inspired shadows (I'm not familiar enough with Tarte to know if these are repromotes or not) as well as a full sized eyeliner, mini mascara & primer. There is also a mirror on the top of the inside flip-top lid. This palette retails for $52 at TarteCosmetics.com, Sephora.com & Ulta.com as well as in Sephora & Ulta stores.

Pull out drawer under palette that holds the primer, liner & mascara

Lights, Camera, Lashes! mascara in black.

Lifted primer.

EmphasEYES liner in black.

Also included is this eye chart guide with some recommended looks.

Onto the shadows! I really thought the quality of these were great, considering the $52 price tag for this palette. A lot of companies tend to lessen the quality of the products placed in palettes such as this as a means to compensate for possible lost revenue. What I mean by that is, a company that mass produces palettes with lots of shadows, such as this, tend to lose money. The individual cost of the good quality eyeshadows would be far too much for any consumer to spend, which is why they list the estimate value. This palette has a value of $331, because that would be how much you would spend on the individual items. Sorry for going off on a tangent, but my overall point is that Tarte kept good quality eyeshadows in this palette instead of using crap-ingredient shadows to save money.

 Anyways! :D

All swatches were swiped over NYX Milk eye pencil using a flat brush.

Some of the shadows do have a bit of a sparkly fall out, even with the usage of primer & a base. I still really think they're worth it. Tarte kept the quality of these shadows up to par & there isn't a single shade that applied chalky or inconsistent. Even Nocturnal, which is a deep, blackened blue with blue sparkle, held true to the colour in the pan when applied. There is a nice difference in shadow finishes, with some matte, frost & sparkly shades.

So, even if you're not a fan of True Blood, I think this palette is a total steal. While the colours tend to run dark, it is still a really nice range with a LOT of possibilities.

Showcase: Smashbox 'Style Files'

While browsing Sephora a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon this boxed set by Smashbox. I'm personally a really big fan of sets like these, as they tend to sell them for a great price considering the actual retail value of the individual products. This set retails for $59 at Sephora.

 The set is separated into 3 'books' of product; Lip & Cheek Palette, Eye Liner Palette & Shadow Palette. While I like that everything is bundled together, it can seem rather bulky & could be inconvenient for artists who need quick access to their products.

The Lip & Cheek palette consists of 2 lipgloss tubes & 2 blushes. The first blush/gloss is a warm, light coral. The blush is more of a matte finish & the gloss is sheer. The second blush/gloss is a sparkly brown-based nude. Both the blush & gloss have a noticeable amount of shine & shimmer.

 Cheek #1, Cheek #2

 Lipgloss #1

Lipgloss #2

I personally didn't like either of the two glosses. I found the first to be too sheer while the second was too sparkly. I did like the first blush, but rarely wear coral tones in the first place.

The Eye Liner palette has 4 cream liners & two liner pencils. There is a warm, cream colour, a medium brown, silver & eggplant-ish purple as well as brown & black pencils.

I really liked the cream liners, but will probably use them for a base as opposed to lining. The pencil liners are nice, too, & all of the shades applied nice & creamy.

The last palette, Shadow Palette, consists of 8 eyeshadows. The range of colours is mostly neutrals with differentiating finishes. This part of the set is what convinced me to buy it.

I personally liked the majority of the shadows aside from the mattes. They were chalky & simply unblendable.  The shadow on the top left reminded me of a more purple version of MAC's Pink Pearl pigment. My favourite shade is the bottom left, it was SO soft!

Overall, I think this set is pretty nice considering that it's $59. That may sound like a steep amount of money to pay, but considering the quality of most of the products in the palette, I think it's pretty well worth it. I honestly would've liked to see some travel-sized brushes with it as well to make the set more complete.

As far as I can see, this isn't available online. I checked the Sephora & Smashbox websites and was unable to find it. I did purchase this sometime in late June, so I'm hoping it's still available for those who have been contemplating getting this!

Showcase : Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat

I'm sure you've all noticed that crackle polishes are the hot item right now. Though they have been around for a while, it seems the release of OPI's Black Shatter really gained a huge interest in them once again. Since then, nail polish companies have been releasing their versions of this to keep up with the craze.

While browsing Ulta the other day, I ran across the Sally Hansen version of the crackle polish, Crackle Overcoat. I'm not really a huge fan of SH, as I find their polishes turn my nails yellow & aren't really long lasting. I decided to pick these up anyways because I am definitely one of those who is loving the crackle phase ;)

These retailed for $6.99 each & the collection consists of 8 polishes.

I really like that they released coloured polishes, because black was getting a little boring. China Glaze released theirs with a pink, blue & grey, but I will admit that I am super happy having a red & gold crackle.

I swatched the white, silver & gold over a black polish while the others were over a white polish. I also added a clear top coat to help make the colours look less flat.

In review, these aren't too bad. The gold & silver were pretty weak, though, as they seem to have a lot of sheen/glitter to them; I was highly disappointed in those two. The red & pink are my favourites & I felt their consistency was the best. The black one isn't bad, either, but I will say I do prefer the other brands versions over this one.

When applying these, I felt it was easy to use too much. The brush is small compared to other brands & therefor I had to dip into the bottle for more product. Considering how you're supposed to apply crackle as quickly as possible, I found those extra seconds to be crucial to the way the pattern formed. In which case, with these, looks uneven.

I'll be doing another post soon with comparisons with other brands. Considering the OPI is $8.50, and these were $7, they're a decent alternative if you're looking to save a few bucks when purchasing more than one or two. The colour range also helps! I went back to Ulta today, though, and noticed they were all sold out. They're popping up at some drug stores (Walgreens, CVS) but we sold out of them within 2 days. I also know that Sally Hansen goes on sale at Walgreens for BOGO 50% off, so if you can find these during a sale, snatch 'em up!