Making a Customized Lip Palette

I'm on a roll with space saving ways to condense my makeup collection. First it was de-poting, now its de-tubing. Lipstick, that is!

Call it spring cleaning for your makeup drawer. Call it learning to fit things in small spaces. Or call it "I just happened to find this at my local Sephora so I just had to tell you about it!"

This is the Sephora Lipstick Palette Kit. It's no longer available online, but I found mine in the sale bin at my local Sephora. It includes an empty 8-well lipcolor palette, a lipstick melting bowl, and a spatula. Create-your-own lipstick palettes are great for making a customized palette with your favorite shades so you can easily access your favorite shades in one palette rather than search all over for tubes of lipstick. These palettes are also great for travel so you can carry multiple lip colors without it taking tons of space. The reason I picked this up is because I have a few lipsticks coming to their end and I wanted to dig out and use the last remains of the lipstick and toss the tube. 

This Sephora palette itself is pretty small...just slightly bigger than a credit card. It also includes a small lip brush.

So how do you actually get from tube to palette? I started by digging out lipstick from a tube that seemed to be finished, but I knew there was still lipstick beyond the little plastic edge. As you can see, I dug out almost 1cm of product!

I scooped the product out with the spatula that came in this kit and put it in the melting bowl/

Per the directions that came with this kit, I microwaved the lipstick for 1 minute so it was completely melted.

I then poured the lipstick in to the palette, scraping the palette with the spatula. You are supposed to do this immediately after melting the lipstick, so the lipstick doesn't solidify, so I wasn't able to capture an image of the pouring action, but you can see when the bowl looks like with the product scraped out.

The amount of lipstick I saved filled almost two wells in the palette! The top well was neat, but by the time I started pouring the bottom well I was trying to pour and scrape at the same time so it didn't fill up as neatly. 

Now I can easily use up the lipstick product that would normally be trashed. Although I am not the biggest fan of lip palettes because they can be messy, this is certainly better than digging the lipstick out of the seemingly empty tube and this palette is convenient to use. 

Have you ever de-tubed your lipstick? 

Makeup Tip Monday: How to Depot Shadows and Blushes

Ladies, this is a big one. Despite the other depotting tutorials already out there in cyberland, in the past some readers have requested to know my method, so why not tell all of you!?!

(Warning, this post is photo-heavy.)

So here is a basic MAC eyeshadow in the normal pot:

I open the lid and shove thin tweezers between the little crack that holds the black plastic holding the pan of the shadow and the base of the pot. This will allow the black plastic pan to pop out:

Here is what it should look like with the black plastic pan holding the shadow popped out:

I then light a candle. Holding the black plastic with tweezers, I put the shadow over the flame to start melting a tiny hole in the black plastic. Be careful with this since you don't want to burn everything and end up ruining the shadow or burning yourself. I also recommend doing this by an open window because the plastic burning smell can be quite yucky.

Here you can see that the center of the black plastic has started to melt. The plastic has not melted all the way through, but it is quite soft.

I immediately take a semi-sharp object like a ball-point pen and press it on the melted spot to help push the metal eyeshadow pan out of the plastic. I try not to melt too much of the plastic, so if the shadow pan doesn't pop out right away, I try melting more plastic until I can pop the shadow pan out. Also, I usually lay a soft towel down while doing this so that when shadow pan comes out, it will hit a soft surface and not break.

The metal pan holding the shadow should start to come out of the plastic. At this point I lift the metal pan out of the plastic with my fingers. 

Here is the shadow pan popped out of the plastic. The shadow is face down. Note the sticky glue on the bottom of the metal pan.

While the glue is still sticky, I like to remove the shadow label paper from the bottom of the shadow container so I can attach it to a magnet and attach the magnet to the sticky glue on the metal pan. In order to loosen the paper label, I hold the shadow container a couple inches above the candle flame for a few seconds. The heat will loosen the glue that holds the label on to the plastic container.

Once the label is a little warm, it should peel right off.

I then stick the label on a magnet.

I usually trim the magnet label in to a square that is smaller than the metal shadow pan. I have found that when I use a magnet the whole size of the metal pan the magnet is large and has so much magnetic power that it becomes hard to remove from a pallete.

Here is the final shadow pan. Pretty close to the shadow pans you can just buy from MAC, right?

Finally, I pop the little plastic piece that held the metal shadow pan back into the shadow container. Why? So I can Back-to-MAC it of course!

There it is! Hopefully you find this helpful!

Time to Turn Up the Heat!!! MAC Prep + Prime Face Protect Review

Last week I told you how unimpressed I have been with the recent MAC collections. Flighty was ok...not as bad as it was made out to be...but still not jaw-droppingly amazing. I am hoping the upcoming Surf Baby collection will bring me out of my MAC new collection slump.

In the meantime, I figured I would share with you some of my all-time favorite products from MAC's permanent collection. This first one is a product I have purchased over and over again, and will continue to do so for years to come. It is the MAC Prep + Prime Face Protect SPF 50:

The first time I bought this it was because I wanted sun protection for my face. I had tried the infamous Shiseido sunscreen for the face and it broke me out horribly. The Prep + Prime Face Protect doesn't break me out and it still offers an SPF level of 50!! Hooray!

Although the product is a white cream like most sunscreens, it doesn't make me look white in pictures and my face doesn't feel greasy all day. This also acts like a primer and helps my makeup last all day and provides a great base for foundation allowing it to blend easily over the skin. You need a really small amount to cover the entire face and neck area so one tube should easily last you through the spring and summer. I even use this as a pure sunscreen on my face when I am at the beach or pool and am not wearing any makeup. I simply apply this on my face and neck and use my regular Neutrogena sunscreen on the rest of my body.

The only thing I don't like is the tube packaging. It's one of those that you can't squeeze completely so you can't get all the product out at the end, and it doesn't have a base so it won't sit up on a table. That being said, I LOVE the product inside the package and for that I will continue using this.

Have you tried this? What sun protection do you like?

Makeup Tip Monday: Thick, Luscious Lashes

Wonder how some gals have the most luscious lashes without using falsies? Try this trick:

First apply one coat of mascara to the top side of the lashes....just fling the wand over the ends. Then apply mascara as normal to the underside. Applying mascara on the top helps thicken the lashes and also adds an extra coat to hold curl and add a bit of thickness. 

Battle of the Eye Primers

In my constant quest for finding new and effective products, I decided to put 4 popular eye primers to the test: MAC's Painterly Paint Pot vs. Smashbox's Photo Finish Lid Primer vs. Kat Von D's High Voltage Eye Primer vs. Urban Decay's Primer Potion. I didn't have the Nars primer when I did this experiment, so I might have to repeat it with that. In any case, check out what happened when I applied Urban Decay's Flipside Eyeshadow over each of these 4 eye primers on my arm:

Immediately after application:

L-R: Flipside shadow on its own, MAC Paint Pot, Smashbox Photofinish, Kat Von D High Voltage, and Urban Decay Primer Potion

As you can see, on its own the shadow was very faint and hard to detect. The shadow was the darkest when applied on the MAC Paint Pot and the Urban Decay Primer Potion. During the following 3 hours I really put these primers to the test by rubbing my arm and wearing long sleeves for 30 minutes. Normally, nothing rubs up against our eyelids when we wear makeup, but the blinking motion definitely creates friction. 

3 Hours after application

L-R: Flipside shadow on its own, MAC Paint Pot, Smashbox Photofinish, Kat Von D High Voltage, and Urban Decay Primer Potion

To my surprise, after 3 hours, just about all products had faded away significantly. The Smashbox primer  failed miserably. The MAC Paint Pot worked well at holding on to the product, and the Kat Von D High Voltage worked well at ensuring the color remained bright. I had wanted to test out the ever-popular Too Faced Shadow Insurance but I just didn't have any with me at the time, and it doesn't work too well on me so it's not a product I would repurchase. All in all, this little game reinforced my affinity to MAC's Paint Pots. 

What is your favorite eye primer? 

MAC Flighty Collection: Big Bounce Shadow Review

Ok, as always, I'm going to be honest with y'all. I haven't been impressed or interested with any of the MAC launches since the Mickey Contractor collection, which was 4 months ago. That's saying a lot because I can usually convince myself that at least one product in each collection is worthwhile. I was really excited about the MAC Flighty collection launching in stores in the US today, but after reading other bloggers' reviews, I thought it would be just like the others: disappointing. 

I am happy to say I was wrong. 

Now, I know a lot of people follow Temptalia, as do I, but I find that there are numerous occasions where I don't agree with her. But that's the beauty of the blogging world....we all have our own opinions and the same products work differently on each individual. In the case of the Flighty Collection, there were many negative reviews of the Big Bounce shadows, however my experience was quite the opposite.

I had to try at least one, so I picked up my standard-issue, will-definitely-use shade of peachy gold, the shade titled Up The Ante! The texture of this shadow is somewhat of a liquidy mousse. It doesn't feel whipped, but it doesn't feel watery either. Since it is on the liquidy side, MAC was smart and included a little plastic shield so the product doesn't get all over the place when you open the jar.

 Since I heard that this new shadow creases like crazy, I decided to try it on top of the NARS eye primer. In the spirit of experimentation, I used my finger to apply the shadow on my left eye, and the recommended 242 brush to apply the shadow on my right eye. The brush applied the product more evenly and in a thinner layer, which I preferred because it was buildable.  

 Immediately after applying Up The Ante! Big Bounce Shadow

This shade is pretty shimmery, but not glittery or gritty. It might be a bit too much for the office, but you could work with layering powder shadows on top (as I do later on). The Big Bounce shadow itself dries pretty quickly, but that might be because I used a primer underneath. I didn't feel like I had to leave my eyes closed for the shadow to dry, which was a plus. In order to test out whether this product would wear well on its own (over a primer of course), I wore just this shadow for one hour.  Since most other bloggers said this creases right away, I figured one hour would be sufficient to determine how this wears over another primer.

 One Hour after applying Up The Ante! Big Bounce Shadow

As you can see, this wore really well after an hour! No creasing!!! Part two of my experiment was to see how another shadow would wear on top of the Big Bounce Shadow, so I applied MAC's Kid Powder Shadow on top of Up The Ante!

Immediately after applying Kid Powder Shadow on top of Up The Ante! Big Bounce Shadow

Applying Kid over the sparkly Big Bounce shadow gave a very subtle but gorgeous effect. I really like how this has some visual interest....the shimmer peeks through so it doesn't look like a shimmer shadow but it's not flat either. So how did this shadow combo wear over time?

Five hours after applying Kid Powder Shadow on top of Up The Ante! Big Bounce Shadow

I think it wore quite well! Sorry for the blurriness but it was late when I took this photo and I tried so many times to get a clear shot, but my camera just wasn't having it. In any case, you can see that there was still no creasing or fading of color. Thus, I am pleasantly pleased with the performance of the Big Bounce shadow and I might even go back to check out the other shades. If you don't mind using a primer first, I think these shadows will make be gorgeous as a wash of color over the lid or as a beautiful base. 

Kajal Couture Overall Opinion: A (as long as you use a lid primer underneath)

What do you think? Will you check out these new Big Bounce shadows?

April Favorites

I didn't discover anything new and lovely during April, so my favorites are all oldies but goodies, with the exception of one hair product.

1. Lush Sweet Lips Lip Scrub - This delicious chocolatey-vanilla lip scrub is sooooo tasty it makes me want to lick it off instead of scrub it in! It is a relatively simple sugar scrub that I could probably mix together in my kitchen, but I rarely have time for that, especially if I am trying to smoothen my lips before wearing lipstick for an evening out. I have been using this all winter and have barely made a dent in the pot, so I love that it not only leaves my lips soft and smooth, but it will last forever. 

2. MAC Paint Pot in Rubenesque - This was the first shade of Paint Pot that I ever got and years later, it is still my favorite. The peachiness is subtle enough that I can use it as a base for any eye color, but it is interesting enough that I can wear it by itself with a swipe of mascara and be good to go. 

3. MAC Lustreglass in Love Nectar - My absolute FAVORITE gloss!! It is a subtle peach color with flecks of gold shimmer, and it looks good on top of ANY lipstick. I've gone through several tubes of this because when in doubt, I always reach for this gloss. 

4. MAC Volcanic Ash Exfoliator - Originally released with the MAC Style Black collection in the Fall of 2009, this facial scrub was a big seller and I know why. It works!!! This exfoliator removes dead skin cells, helps clarify the skin, makes the skin softer and smoother, and is gentle enough that it can be used everyday....and for awhile I actually did use it everyday! Until I realized I used all my backup tubes and opened my last one. I am crossing my fingers that MAC releases this product again this year or makes it permanent. It's just that awesome. 

5. HANAair Professional Hair Dryer. I haven't touched my drugstore hair dryer since I got this pro gadget. It dries my hair super fast, helps to eliminate frizz, and I feel like it doesn't burn my hair like most drugstore hair dryers do....it's definitely worth the price! My full review is here. 

Do you like/use any of the products I mentioned above?

Makeup Tip Monday: Dealing With Watery Eyes

Do your eyes ever start to water when lining your waterline or applying mascara? Here's a quick and easy way to clean up those tears before they start to run down your face and ruin the rest of your makeup:

Use a Q-tip (ear bud) and press the tip gently on your tear duct. The cotton on the Q-tip will absorb the tears and you won't get any makeup streaks on your face, unlike Lauren Conrad from The Hills. 

Source

Are you ladies enjoying these Makeup Tip Mondays? Should I keep doing them?