ULTA Girls' Night Out Palette Review

This was a gift from a friend, but opinions are 100% my own.

This is the ULTA girls' Night Out Palette and it has a light silver, a dark metallic grey, a light, shimmery pink, and a light, shimmery lilac color.

These aren't super pigmented, but they are buildable, very pretty, and go on easily.

These do come out a bit better dry than the other palette does, and that bottom lilac-type color is just gorgeous!  They also blend well.  The Ulta shadows, so far, seem a good quality for the price, and though these palettes aren't available anymore, check this one out!  WAAANT!

<3
WW

Ulta Girl Next Door Palette Review

*This was a gift from a friend, but in no way is my opinion swayed by that.  :)

This one's getting some mileage...

This is the Ulta Girl Next Door palette.  Or quad?  Does it have to have more than 5 to be considered a palette?   Meh.

Either way, I love it.  Especially the top two colors.  The first and third color get used quite a lot as they go with almost any color, any look.

Dry, these aren't impressive and don't have much pigment to them, but wet and over primer, they are very nice.

The second color down, when wet, goes on this gorgeous metallic pastel green.  I've never really seen another color quite like it and this will be one of those colors I'll miss when its gone!

Problem?  I see nowhere to buy this online.  I did get this quite a while back, though, so that could be the issue...Will make me miss the pretty light green even more!!

<3
WW

Urban Decay Stardust Review!

**This was a gift from a friend, but all opinions are my own and 100% honest.  Urban Decay has no idea who I am and I was in no way compensated for this review.

Hello!!  I hope everyone is doing beautifully in whatever it is you're tackling this week.  I've been tackling a wicked evil summer cold, but I've also been working on a few long-neglected, unfinished (or, in some cases, unstarted) craft projects while sniffling, coughing, feeling sorry for myself, and watching Netflix.  Have only finished one project as of yet, but I've been making headway on some that have been just sitting around forever and ever, so be sure to keep your eye on the craft wing for new tutorials soon if you are interested and haven't subscribed or followed it in any way!  I've also been doing some cooking since, damnit, life doesn't just stand still when I get a summer cold, so there will be new recipes coming as well.  :)

ANYWAY...

I know some of you have been waiting on this review ever since I got the box o' awesome, so I'll just delve right in!

This is Urban Decay Stardust eyeshadow in Retrograde.  The case is cardboard or thick, sturdy paper of some sort, seems durable enough, and closes magnetically.  It is easy to open, yet has never come open on its own in my case or purse.

Shot of the back...I took new pictures since all this came in, so its been be-bopping around my makeup box/bag/bathroom counter because I love this one a lot.

Even when I don't use it, I like to just stare at it because it is pretty...Sometimes I'll be doing my makeup and I'll know I don't want to do purple that day, but I will pick this up, gaze at it, and for a moment consider clashing with or changing my outfit to do purple because...sparkles.

I took new swatches for this review and did them primer-wet-dry so you can see alllll the gorgeous.  This picture captures the way it sparkles in person better than most of the others do.

Over primer, this is a very pretty purple with a nice sparkle, though the sparkle does tend to want to spread its glow and the glitter doesn't all stay put - most does, but there is a tiny bit of fairy dusting onto the cheekbones.  It does take a little layering if you want it to be dark, though, and the fallout of the color itself seems to be worse than the glitter fallout, so you have to be careful and layer it on a bit at a time to avoid a mess.

Wet, this goes on a beautiful, pigmented, metallic purple with a heavy glitter that stays put.  This works great for dramatic looks or a purple and black smokey eye and just glides on when applied.  The pictures do not do it justice.

Dry and with no primer, as you can see in the pictures, is a barely-there lavender with only a few flecks of glitter that hang around.  The fallout in general is pretty bad, to be honest, as with over primer, but it is still a pretty light purple, though this color obviously stands out much better wet or over primer.

These are on sale for 6 bucks - including this color - on Urban Decay's website right now.  I'd say that's definitely worth it, even to my cheap ass, so go get one!  Or a few!  The payoff of the color wet and over primer WAY outweighs the poor quality when dry or the fallout problem.  Especially considering I've yet to come across *any* shadow that doesn't have a bad fallout problem.  I have decent MAC brushes, so I don't think they are the issue.  Does anyone else experience this?

Either way, I do love this stuff so much.  It is lovely to wear, lovely to look at.  In fact, Atmosphere and Griffith are going on my wishlist right now!

<3

WookieWifey

Ole Henriksen Three Little Wonders Box Set Review

**Product was a gift from a friend, but all reviews are my own honest opinion and not swayed by the whole "free" thing.

Another one to review from the box o' awesome.  Insane that I got that in December and am STILL reviewing its contents.  Can we say best care package ever?!  Of course, I've reviewed a ton of other things that I've purchased or received on my own between all this stuff, but that is still a LOT OF REVIEWS.

This set is the Ole Henriksen Three Little Wonders Box Set - (from right to left) Sheer Transformation (a moisturizer), Truth Serum collagen booster, and Invigorating Night Gel.  I was a bit confused when I first opened the box that there was no face wash, but I quickly got over that.  Note no scent is mentioned because there wasn't any.  Some of the products had just a hint of something almost herbaly I couldn't put my finger on, but there was no overt scent to any of them.

This is what the serum looks like, and was my favorite by far.  It leaves your skin feeling so squeaky clean and refreshed.  I was leery of it because it appears to be oily, but it actually didn't break me out a bit.  The Wookie used this quite a bit as well and loved it.

These are the other two.  The moisturizer is silky and light, leaves your skin feeling soft but with no greasiness, and I like it quite a bit.  Is it magic?  No.  But it didn't irritate my skin and seemed to do what it is supposed to.

The night gel, I'm not so sure about.  It left a bad, odd, layer on my skin.  I don't know if night gels are SUPPOSED to do that as this is the first one I've tried, but I'd put it on about an hour or so before bed, but if I rubbed my face any time afterward, this stuff would roll up and come off in my hand, like when you have glue on your skin and you rub at it.  I tried using less of it, but no matter how little I used, it still did that.  I never had it do anything bad to my face, but I never woke up with OMG better skin, either, so that being said, I'd leave this one out just because of the gross factor.

Now, on to price.  From what I can see online, this mini trio set I have goes for about $70 (!!!), and the full sizes are $45 for each cream and $72 for the serum.  Figures the one I like the most would be the expensive one.  If I had money lying around all haphazardly and could afford to drop cash like that on products, then the serum and moisturizer would forever be in my cabinet as backups in case I ran out of my favorite so far (which has been the Benefit set) and because the Wookie liked the serum so much, but being as broke as I am, I doubt I'll get to enjoy these products again.  While I love how awesomely luxurious and spa-like it made me feel (before I even saw the prices), it just isn't something that is at all realistic for me to keep in my arsenal right now and, honestly, for that price, I expect my skin to look AMAZING, not "well, at least it didn't make it worse".

<3 WW

Josie Maran Argan Cleansing Oil Review

If you've ever read any other post or been around more than 3 minutes on this little blogging empire, then you'll know that I'm usually not comfortable with reviewing samples.  You almost never get enough of an idea from one or two uses of something to tell if it is truly a good product or not.  Almost.

This is the exception.  This goes for about 32 bucks for 6oz on Sephora or $24 (give or take depending on the seller, of course) on amazon.  Pricey?  Yep.  Worth it?  Absolutely.  I can tell you that after one use.  In fact, I still have another sample hidden away that I'm hoarding in case of a very bad skin emergency day.

See, I have super sensitive skin with a genetic skin condition on top of it.  This little packet horrified me when I first saw it as usually anything oil-based spells instant disaster for my skin but I decided to give it a go anyway.  Glad I did because the next morning, was so clear, soft, and glowy.  After ONE USE, people.   Just so you know, I was using my standard, go-to, nothing special, doesn't-break-me-out-but-doesn't-make-it-better face wash in between, so its not like I used a different sample the day before that had the effect, it was all this little puppy right here.  Not much makes my skin better, the best I can usually hope for is a cleanser that just doesn't poke the bear.  This is only the second thing I've ever tried (Benefit being the other) that my skin had an amazingly GOOD reaction to.  This is another one I'll be trying to save up to get a full size of.

It does feel like oil going on and washing off, and I love that it doesn't have any scrubbies in it as exfoliants tend to really piss my skin off.  I was sure to rinse in water as warm as I could stand it so I left as little residue on my face as possible and I followed it with my normal sensitive skin off-brand moisuturizer (which was the only thing I'd found I could use from drugstore brands and now they don't make it anymore ohmygodwhatamigoingtodo).

Recommend if you have the funds, all the way!

<3

WW