My "favorite" palettes?

This is just going to be a short post answering a frequently asked question! :3

I get asked ALL THE TIME from friends and strangers what my favorite makeup palettes are. It's kind of a hard question to answer because palettes are usually kind of pricy, if you buy high end makeup, so I do a LOT of research before I invest $50+ dollars in a palette. I only buy a palette if I know for a fact I'm going to like it.

The key elements in a palette are:
-Good color combinations, I should be able to use nothing but that palette for a month. In other words all of the colors need to go together or coordinate in some way.
-Good range of colors/finishes. In order to complete a whole eye you need lid, crease, and highlight shades. So a palette must have all of those.
-Good quality. I check swatches before EVERY purchase I make. I want to know exactly what I'm buying. I am not comfortable buying something and not knowing if its good quality.

The only acceptation to the rule, for me at least, is if I know I don't have any of the colors in the palettes. Personally I have plenty of highlight shades and whatnot. So if I find a palette with a bunch of neon colors I won't feel bad about buying it. But if you are buying your first big palette those are all good things to have so you have everything you need. Almost all of my palettes abide by those rules.

The palettes I own are(with prices):
-Urban Decay
   -Naked2($50)
   -Smoked($49)
   -Vice($59)
   -Book of Shadows IV(? was $40)
   -Deluxe Shadow Box($19)
-Sigma
   -Paris Palette($49)
-BH Cosmetics (Or Shany, Coastal Scents, etc they're all the same)
   -120 palette($29.95)
-Sugarpill
   -Heart Breaker($34)
   -Burning Heart($34)

I HIGHLY recommend every single one of the palettes I own save the BH Cosmetics palette, not that its horrible it's just not the best quality and it's cheaply made. As far as a starter palette goes I would recommend the Naked2 (or Naked) and Book of Shadows palettes. The Naked2 is all neutrals and is really good basic colors. The Book of Shadows IV has great starter colors and some fun colors mixed in BUT from further research neither Urban Decay nor Sephora sell it anymore. :/

The Smoked palette from Urban Decay and the Sigma Paris palette are both really good, well balanced palettes. They are a lot more bold but if you like bright and dark colors, like me, then you will love these. They are super pigmented with amazing colors.

If you are in to super bright, fun colors then Sugarpill palettes might be up your alley. They can be kind of chalky but they show up beautifully. I couldn't be happier with them.

Some other palettes I really want and have researched extensively are:
Sugarpill Sweet Heart Palette-$34
Stila In The Light Palette-$39
A MAC build your own palette-$196

These are honestly not things I need, I already have more than I need. I will not ever get these unless I have the money to do so. These are more for fun!

I will list links for everything, save the Book of Shadows, below! You really should just find a palette with colors that appeal to you, do your research, look at swatches, and make an informed decision. There is a palette out there for literally every taste!

Urban Decay Palettes
Sigma Paris Palette
BH Cosmetics 120 Palette
Sugarpill Palettes

My Thoughts On Skyrim: Dragonborn

Every time DLC has come out for Skyrim I have jumped on that shit like its my job. Dragonborn was no different. I purchased it a few days after it came out and waited 2 hours for it to download, crappy small town internet! *shakes fist at the sky*

So obviously I was extremely excited about delving into this new area for all the quests and goodies. I was thinking that there would be one long questline with a few slightly boring side quests, like in Dawngaurd. But it was quite the opposite. The main questline was not nearly as long as the one in Dawnguard but there were lots of fun quests and miscellaneous things to do, so it was a trade off.

In the main questline you are trying to find a man named Miraak, who tried to have you killed. From there you ride a boat, after convincing a reluctant captain, to the island of Solstheim and your new adventure begins! If you want to read more about the details of the DLC go here-->Skyrim: Dragonborn, Elderscrolls Wiki

Alright so here's where the spoilers come in so if you don't want to know all the little details click away now.

Overall this DLC is really fun, gives you quite a bit to do, some cool new armor/weapons, places to explore, really everything you could ask for in this DLC. My only complaint is that some of the quests weren't longer or more thought through. Some of them seemed more like miscellaneous quests rather than notable ones. I also got through this relatively fast...well it seemed anyway. In total it took me 15 hours to get through most of the notable quests, exploring, crafting, etc.

Things I loved:
-The Black Book quests- Cool abilities and when you defeat Miraak you can reset your talent trees!
-The Reiklings- SO ADORABLE, cute little companions, interesting questline.
-The Deathbrand Armor set- Who doesn't love searching for buried treasure?
-Awesome new shouts- 4 in all, and umm riding dragons? What's not to love?
-How true to Morrowind the landscape, guards, and buildings were
-Little bonus'-The house and finding Sapphire's father...I enjoy little storylines like these quite a bit and the -house is like a dungeon, bad fucking ass!

Things I didn't like:
-There were a few quests that I really think should have been more substantial than they were. Several took me two minutes and they weren't miscellaneous quests.
-When I first played dragon riding/fighting was broken. It did not work at all
-A few quests seemed like dead ends to me. (The werebears, black books, ash spawn.)

In all I loved this DLC. It was a great addition to Skyrim quest, location, item, and shout wise. The few complaints, and I wouldn't really call them that, that I do have are very minor and I feel like I always expect more than I realistically should. I feel like I should also take more time on these but when they come out I have to play it and I have to play it all the way through asap. #gamerproblems But I digress, go buy this and be sucked into hours of gameplay once more. You know you want to...

Enough Makeup, It's Time For Geekery!

I realize all I have posted thus far is makeup reviews. This is because I had shopped on Black Friday so I had a lot of beauty stuff to post. Now I feel like I need to balance that out with some geeky posts. These posts will be pertaining to: the geek stuff I'm interested in, The tv show Sherlock, World of Warcraft, The Fallout series from Bethesda, Skyrim DLC-Dragonborn, and whatever else I feel like talking about.

Enjoy this...

As I said in my "intro" this is a blog more for me to talk about things I like so it's going to be random and about many different topics as I am an eclectic person.

Hope you enjoy!
-Kenzie

Some Of My Sugarpill Eye Looks ♥

Sugarpill Eyeshadows: Decora, Poison Plum, 2AM, Royal Sugar, Lumi.

Sugarpill Eyeshadows: Mochi, Poison Plum, Decora, Absinthe, Buttercupcake, Lumi.

Sugarpill Eyeshadows: Love+, Decora, Royal Sugar.

Sugarpill Eyeshadows: Lumi, Birthday Girl, Decora, Poison Plum. (In retrospect I should have put some liquid eyeliner on :/)

Sugarpill Eyeshadows: Love +, Poison Plum, Lumi. Sigma Eyeshadow- Eiffel (From Paris Palette)

Sugarpill Eyeshadows: Royal Sugar, Acidberry, Buttercupcake, Lumi, Poison Plum.

 

 

Other Products: NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk, NYX Noir Collection Liquid Eyeliner, Urban Decay 24/7 pencil in Perversion, Urban Decay Big Fatty Mascara.

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar Pro Pics Set Review

Pro Picks Lip Tar Set (brush not pictured)

From left: Stalker, Melange, Grandma, Vintage, Pretty Boy

REALLY crappy swatches! Same order as above.

OCC lip brush included with set

It was such an ordeal getting this set let me tell you! I ordered this on Black Friday with my other Sephora items and when it arrived I had two Melange's and no Vintage. So I called Sephora to ask about returns and they said it takes 2-3 weeks to process! I never really complain to customer service people, but I spend so much money there I think I deserve the process to move a little faster. So she was really nice and gave me an in store credit and reordered it for me! Needless to say it's finally here!

I have heard so much hype about these products for years from beauty guru's and makeup artists I figured they had to be good. They have such an amazing color range, even some really odd ones so you can mix and make your own color. I had 4 lip tars in my shopping list on Sephora's website and then I found this little gem of a set. All the colors I had on my shopping list were in here! (Melange was the only one that wasn't.) I was so excited to finally have it last night before I took pictures of everything I tried all of them on one after the other (thus why the brush is dirty haha) And I have to say they are all totally and utterly amazing. Everyone is right, the hype is more than deserved.

Heres what came in the set:
Stalker- true blue based red
Melange- terracotta neutral
Grandma- classic coral
Vintage- deep burgundy
Pretty Boy- super rich fuchsia

I love all the colors. The only one I'm going to have to work with is Melange. I'm SUPER pale and this is supposed to be a neutral color but its a bit too dark for me. I was most excited about Vintage and Pretty Boy. I look best in deeper reds and I love hot pink lips. I was a bit scared when I put a dot of Vintage on the brush, it looked dark brown! But once I got it on it really looked like a vintage red lipstick. And Pretty Boy, don't even get me started on that beauty! Super bright pink, true to color, looks AMAZING. I love orange makeup for some reason, I just think it looks good on me since I'm so pale. So Grandma, being a coral, looked fantastic on me. It went really well with my skin tone and is a beautiful color. Stalker is a bright true red, I usually don't look good in those but since this one applied evenly and smoothly it looked really nice. I think I'm going to try wearing Vintage and Stalker together, they seem like they would work well together!

I have always had a problem with lipsticks because I have really dry, flaky lips no matter how much lip balm I put on. So its always a concern of mine, especially with red lipstick, that the lipstick is going to look bad and flake off because of my lips. So I was worried the same thing would happen with these....BUT IT DIDN'T!!!!!! Right when I put Pretty Boy on (Yes I started with the bright pink!!) my lips smoothed out. They didn't look dry and flaky at all! It was like a lip miracle. And on top of that they have this nice minty smell to them, not super important, but nice.

They are all super pigmented and true to their color descriptions. You need only the tiniest amount, a dot on the top of your brush, to cover your lips. Since you only need the tiniest bit to cover your lips these will last you SO long. I honestly am going to give up regular lipstick for these. They are one of the best beauty purchases I have ever made.

 The brush was also a nice added bonus, its really nice, super soft, not pokey and applies beautifully. It's a very well made brush.

Lip tars, individually, go for $16, cheaper than most lipsticks of equal quality and you get so much more product and if you buy them from Sephora you get a mini lip brush with each one! This set was $49 at Sephora (Sephora-OCC). Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics also sells air brush foundation, blush, bronzer, nail polish, pigments, glitter, brushes, etc. They are also 100% vegan and cruelty free! I love when companies are conscious of things like that. All in all this is an AMAZING makeup brand and I will be buying more from them in the future!

Have fun and be yourself
-Kenzie

Sugarpill Cosmetics Haul! ♥

Yaaay! My Sugarpill package is FINALLY here! It felt like an eternity waiting for it! I love their shipping boxes with the pill kitty! So cute!

 This is my entire order. I shopped on Black Friday and got 30% off everything which was AMAZING. I wasn't going to get the Heart Breaker palette but with the 30% off I was able to! My entire haul includes:

Heart Breaker Palette

Burning Heart Palette

Chromalust Trio in Atomic (Includes Chromalust eyeshadows in Lumi, Royal Sugar, and Decora.)

Chromalust eyeshadow in Absinthe 

I also got some freebies which was super awesome! I got a sample of Chromalust eyeshadow in Birthday Girl, a BIG sparkly Sugarpill sticker, and a card about an upcoming palette!

Product packaging ♥

Extras

Chromalust eyeshadows! Super glittery pigmented goodness! From Left: Lumi, Royal Sugar, Absinthe, Decora.

Heart Breaker and Burning Heart Palettes♥ Heart Breaker palette from top left: Acidberry, Velocity, 2am, Mochi. Burning Heart palette from top left: Flamepoint, Buttercupcake, Love+, Poison Plum. They really don't show up as vibrant as they are in person...silly phone camera haha.

 I'm not going to post swatches because I don't have a good enough camera and there are plenty out there. (Like here --->Temptalia-Sugarpill Swatches) I did swatch them for myself and I love every single one of them! My faves are Lumi, Decora, and Tako.

Chromalust Loose Eyeshadows:
 Lumi - white/iridescent eyeshadow with LOTS of glitter.
 Royal Sugar- royal blue with blue glitter.
 Absinthe- yellow/lime greeen with silver glitter.
Decora- hot pink with green glitter.
Birthday Girl- baby pink with fuchsia sparkle.

Heart Breaker Palette:
Acidberry- Matte lime green with pearl sheen
Velocity- Matte Royal blue (looks TOTALLY washed out in my pictures...)
2am- Matte purple with a pearl sheen
Mochi- Minty blue matte with pearl sheen

Burning Heart Palette:
Flamepoint- Bright matte orange
Buttercupcake- BRIGHT matte yellow
Love+- Matte red
Poison Plum- Dark matte purple with slight sheen

I'm not going to wear any other eyeshadow for weeks! These are definitely eyeshadows you need to use a white base with, like NYX's Jumbo Pencil in Milk, but a lot of these stand well on their own! You can also use all of these wet or dry for different effects which is awesome. There's just so many possibilities and combinations with all of these.

They're definitely not for the faint of heart but even the most modest makeup wearer could pull these off as a nice wash of color. Me on the other hand...I'm going to have color all over my face haha! Expect to see a lot of pictures coming from instagram here in the next week because I could not be more excited to have some art time.

Overall I am totally blown away by the quality, not only of the product, but of the packaging! The palettes are in heavy duty cardboard cases. They have nice weight to them but aren't bulky and have a magnetic clasp so I think they would be good for travel. The Chromalust eyeshadows are in nice, thick plastic casing with a tight cap so unless you have butterfingers you shouldn't fear spilling/dropping these. I'm going to make sure I handle mine with extra care since I'm a klutz. I also LOVE that it came with some freebies! I mean, who doesn't love free stuff! I was really hoping I'd get the big Sugarpill sticker and I did! Its super pink and sparkly and I love it. And I love the sample of Chromalust eyeshadow in Birthday Girl and it's a pretty good sized sample! I'll be able to use it several times before its gone.

All Sugarpill palettes sell for $34, Chromalust trios go for $30, and single pressed eyeshadows and single Chromalust eyeshadows are $12. They also have false eyelashes in all kinds of amazing shapes and colors, lash glue, and stickers! This has been one of my all time favorite makeup brands for as long as I can remember and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to have fun bright colors on their face. Check out the Sugarpill website here-->http://www.sugarpillshop.com/ They have a kick ass website and all orders over $75 ship free, and trust me its easy to spend that much there! All other orders ship for $5 which is a good deal. Go buy some right away and have fun with some pretties!

 Have fun and be yourself!
-Kenzie ♥

Sephora Goodies!

Some free goodies I got from Sephora!

Clinique Acne Solutions trial kit
Sephora Instant Moisturizer
Laura Mercier Face Polish
Urban Decay De-Slick Oil Control Makeup Setting Spray
Tarte Smooth Opreator Amazonian Clay Finishing Powder
Sephora Anti-Shine Foundation Primer
Clarins Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch Makeup Base
Lancome Hypnose Star Mascara in Noir Midnight
Benefit They're Real! Mascara
Lancome La Base Pro Face Primer
Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy
Thierry Mugler Alien
Viktor & Rolf  Flowerbomb
Billionaire Boyfriend


Some of these things I have/have tried and others I'm really excited to try! Viva La Juicy is my FAVORITE perfume. It's sweet and girly without being floral, which I love. I have 6 of these little samples haha.

 I got one of these Clinique kits in my last order and love it. It makes my skin feel really clean and nice. The moisturizer in it doesn't do much for my skin though. I use it because it has the acne treatment in it too but I have to use an extra moisturizer afterwards but I don't mind it.

 The Sephora moisturizer works surprisingly well! It completely soaked into my skin and didn't leave it dry! I honestly underestimate Sephora's in house products. I actually want to buy this next time I shop there.

 The Laura Mercier exfoliator was AMAZING. It left my skin feeling smooth and clean! I have patchy dry skin so I have to exfoliate often but I need something that's not too harsh on my skin and this is it! I am buying it asap!

 I always get heartbroken by Thierry Mugler's perfumes because the packaging is totally gorgeous but the perfume is so strange. I have an Angel sample and didn't like it and I don't like Alien either sadly. I can't even describe the smell, it's just strange.

I'm suuuuuper excited to try both of the mascaras and the face products and I hope the other perfumes are good! I'll post an update later about those. I was just so excited about everything I wanted to post this now!

Also I wanted to say I got all this free stuff because I am a V.I.B. at Sephora. You have to spend $350 or more a year there to get that status and you get all kinds of perks and free stuff. You can make a normal account and rack up points to put towards free stuff, 1point per $1. Every time you shop there you get 3 free samples and they usually have coupon codes so you can get a free deluxe sample or something special. So this is a combination of the 3 samples, a V.I.B. coupon code for a makeup bag filled with goodies, and 200 points for products. I get free stuff like this almost every time I shop there, which is one reason I love Sephora so much!

TokyoMilk Dark Roller Balls and Lip Elixir

These are two TokyoMilk Dark products that I bought at Sephora on Black Friday. I'd had the lip elixir in my shopping list for well over a year and just kept forgetting to get it. These were honestly an impulse buy. The packaging is pretty and the products sound dark, sultry, and amazing.

TokyoMilk Lip Elixirs- I got mine in salted caramel, because how good does that sound?! Like I said, I had it in my shopping list FOREVER so I was so excited when I finally got it. It seriously smells like salty sweet caramel. The smell is pretty strong at first but when you get it on your lips it smells so nice. The balm is really thick, but not gloppy like some chapsticks can be. A little goes a looooong way and it doesn't disappear from your lips quickly. It feels nice and not too heavy and its really moisturizing. The tin is pretty solid and very pretty, something I want to carry around everywhere haha. Overall I am extremely happy with this and its going to last me a long time from the looks of it. Its much bigger than I expected it to be which is awesome! They have 6 different flavors, I'm buying clove cigarette next! It sells at Sephora for $7.

 TokyoMilk Perfume- This set was a Black Friday $10 deal, so you cant get this set anymore, but the full size perfumes and roller balls are on sale at Sephora. First off I want to note that I don't have a refined perfume nose. I'm very picky because I have never been a perfume person till recently. Now keeping that in mind I will say every one of these perfumes smells AMAZING. I cannot say enough good things about these. They totally smell true to their scents and they are all so different and smell beautiful.

La vie La Mort No.090- White Tuberose, Cardamom, Hibiscus Leaf, Jasmine

Tainted Love No.062- Dark Vanilla Bean, Orchid, White Tea, Sandalwood

Bulletproof  No.045- Smoked Tea, Coconut Milk, Crushed Cedar, Ebony Woods

Bulletproof is definitely my favorite, I'm a sucker for coconut, but they are all perfumes I would regularly wear. They are girly with an edge, that's honestly the perfect description for them. I'm not a fan of florals but the ones with floral scents are totally unexpected. If you want to wear something that smells amazing and isn't the norm these are the way to go. The perfumes retail at Sephora for $36 for 1.6oz. They also have roller balls for $24.


Overall I loved everything so much more than I expected. This is definitely a brand I am going to buy more from and recommend heavily!

Check out more products from this company here- TokyoMilk

And so it begins...

I suppose I should start off by saying what this blog is about. The thing is I have no idea. It has been very hard trying to decide the content and basis of all this.

My first thought was makeup, a passion of mine, but how many makeup blogs are out there? Thousands? No, too generic.

My next thought was a geek blog, I would talk about sci-fy and fantasy shows, movies, and games. However, I don't think anyone would hold my opinion or thoughts in high regard. Who am I?

After that it was just a whirlwind of thoughts. Videogames? Motherhood? General observances of the world around me? I stayed up till I could barely keep my eyes open anymore, scouring my brain for a brilliant idea. Finally, fed up, I decided I would do it all.

This will be a blog about everything. Sure I don't have a "target audience" and I honestly doubt that anyone is really going to read this, but this is more for me than anything. An outlet, if you will. So I'm going to write about whatever I want because I don't have to please anyone but myself, and if I meet some nice people along the way great!

So anything that tickles my fancy will be here, from makeup, to sci-fy, to the funny thing my kid did today. I hope someone enjoys it.