Fabulous $1 Find for the Holiday

Profusion Twinkle Twinkle Palette  in #03

Time is running out.  Christmas is one week from today, and while I am enjoying the season, it is a hectic time.  One thing that I always seem to leave to the last minute is stocking stuffers for my family.  So, this past weekend I was out trying to finish my checklist so that I didn’t have to run around on the 24th with all the other procrastinators out there (my peeps).  At Walgreens there was a very convenient display of $1 and $2 stocking stuffers that, among other things, contained these 5-pan eyeshadow palettes from Profusion in various shades.  I am such a sucker for green shadows, so I couldn’t resist picking up the Twinkle Twinkle Palette in number 03.  I figured that, even if it totally sucked, I would only have wasted $1.  As it happens, the shadows are great.

Profusion Twinkle Twinkle Palette in #03

I don’t remember if I have ever used Profusion myself, but I have seen several holiday kits and palettes from the brand over the years.  I don’t think that they are exclusive to Walgreens, but I’m not sure.  If you know if you can find Profusion in other drugstores let all of us know in a comment below.  Honestly, my expectations were not high, but I was wrong.  First of all, these pans are huge for such an inexpensive product.  The palette is .28 oz.  The shadows are smooth and creamy.  They blend easily, but do not get muddy, which can be a problem with inexpensive shadows.  I did not find them powdery or chalky in the slightest.  They are really pigmented, especially the darker shades.  They have a subtle satin shimmer finish, and do not contain glitter or chunky particles, which can also be an issue with cheaper palettes.  The shadows look beautiful and sophisticated, and much more expensive than they are.  I did experience a tiny bit of fading when worn alone, so be sure to use a primer to make these shadows last all day.  Otherwise, I have no complaints.

Profusion Twinkle Twinkle Palette in #03

The shades are:

• A sort of mink shade, great all over the lid.
• A deep antique bronze, really versatile.
• A light pear shade.  This is the sheerest of the 5 shades and needs to be built up a bit to see the green come out.
• A gorgeous dark evergreen.  Love this shade, and the palette is worth it to me just for this one.
• A blackened navy with some slight teal undertones.  This shade is unbelievably pigmented.

I am really pleasantly surprised by the Profusion Twinkle Twinkle Palette in number 03.  For only $1, it’s fantastic.  I’m thinking that I need to make it back to Walgreens to see what other shades they have to offer.  I definitely recommend this palette as a great stocking stuffer.  I am not sure if these palettes are limited edition or not.  I assume that they were just brought out for the holidays, but I honestly haven’t paid that much attention to Profusion, so I’m not sure.  If you know for sure, please leave a comment to let us all know.  Just in case, I’d mosey on down to your local Walgreens and go ahead and pick a few up.  At $1 each, what do you have to lose?  I don’t think that you will be disappointed.

 

Bite Beauty Best Bite Set

Best Bite Set

A fun Holiday gift idea is the Bite Beauty Best Bite Set, exclusive to Sephora.  The Best Bite Set contains four mini High Pigment Matte Pencils from the Bite Beauty brand.  This is a brand that is new to me, but I am very interested and excited to show you this set.  I know that many of you are very concerned with ingredients, and Bite Beauty is certainly a brand to look at. What sets Bite Beauty apart is the use of food-grade ingredients, operating on the theory that you are going to ingest at least a little of your lip products so they better not be bad for you.  I love that idea, and it makes perfect sense to me.  Let’s take a closer look.

Best Bite Set

Bite Beauty is a Canadian brand that, as far as I know, is only available at Sephora.  Here is what the Sephora website has to say about the brand: “Bite is beauty for lips that’s good enough to eat. With highly pigmented, trend-forward color palettes, Bite’s hydrating formulas are infused with food-grade ingredients—so your lips feel as gorgeous as they look.  Lips absorb what you put on them. For this reason, Bite avoids petroleum by-products and synthetic chemicals, strictly using nourishing, restorative and antioxidant ingredients. Each Bite bullet is handcrafted without compromise and made in small batches to preserve the hydrating benefits of organic oils, fruit butters, and bioactives—for beauty that’s truly better for you.”

Best Bite Set

The Best Bite Set, like I said above, contains four mini High Pigment Matte Pencils.  They are .05 oz each, and they come in a sleek little reusable tin that is a little larger than an Altoids tin.  The tin has a surprisingly good mirror in the lid, so the set is extremely travel friendly.  The pencils are self-sharpening twist ups.   I really like the packaging, except that the caps can be tough to get off initially. The pencils themselves have the slightest hint of a sweet taste.  They have a rather unfortunate scent during initial application, but the smell fades and is not noticeable during wear.  The formula is creamy and they glide on smoothly.  They are comfortable on the lips, especially considering that they are matte, though I do feel the need to apply gloss or balm after an hour and a half or so.  For me that’s really good.  They last a good long time, and I can easily get four hours of wear.  I’m pleased with the formula.

Best Bite Set

There are three permanent shades of High Pigment Matte Pencils in the Best Bite Set, Quince, Madeira, and Rhubarb.  The fourth shade, Cranberry, is (I believe) a limited edition shade for the holiday.  Quince is a bright berry, almost fuchsia shade.  Rhubarb, my favorite, is a dark rosy-mauve shade.  Cranberry is a blue-toned dark red, beautiful for this time of year.  Madeira is a pink-toned nude.  I personally love all of the shades except Madeira because I don’t do nudes.  However, I can make it work by layering it with other shades.  Rhubarb and Cranberry are fantastic for me.  In general, I think the shades are pretty wearable and most people will probably like at least three of them.  Check out the swatch below.

Top to bottom: Quince, Rhubarb, Madeira, Cranberry

I really like the Best Bite Set.  It has been a great introduction to the Bite Beauty line for me.  I think the set would be a great gift for someone who likes lip products.  They are wearable shades that should please a wide variety of styles and skin tones.  The set is $25, and is available through Sephora.  For reference, a full sized High Pigment Matte Pencil is $24 for .09 oz.  The Best Bite set gives you more than twice the product for basically the same price.  I definitely think it’s worth it.  It is a limited edition holiday set, so I definitely recommend checking out the Best Bite Set from Bite Beauty while you still can.

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette is the Tarte Holiday palette that is exclusive to Ulta this year.  Last year I was more impressed with the Sephora exclusive, but for 2013 this Ulta exclusive won me over.  The Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette is jam-packed with product and has a cool portable option.  The very best part of the palette, though, is that there are four different shades of the Amazonian 12-Hour Clay Blushes.  Tarte blushes are some of the best on the market, in my opinion, so I am so excited that they are included.  All in all, this palette is a great value (more on that later) and a really good option for a Holiday gift to a loved one or even yourself.  Take a closer look.  (All of my photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.)

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette

The palette comes in a purple and gold “jewelry box” style package with a flip up top and one drawer.  Here is what Ulta has to say: “Give the gift of color and convenience this season with Tarte’s limited-edition Gorgeous Getaways portable palettes & collector’s compact set. Overflowing with 16 expertly-coordinated eye shadows, 4 brand new blushes and 3 maracuja lipglosses, this one-of-kind modular box set also includes a chic portable palette compact for endless looks on the go!

The limited-edition set features:

• 16 full size Amazonian Clay Eye Shadows inspired by magical destinations around the world
• 4 full size Amazonian 12-Hour Clay Blushes in new limited-edition shades
• 3 full size Maracuja Lipglosses in new limited-edition shades
• Portable collector’s compact to take the interchangeable palettes on-the-go

To take your palettes with you in the collector’s compact, simply lift the ribbon, remove the palette, and place it inside the compact.”

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette

I think that the pop-out quads set this palette apart and that bow compact is adorable.  The magnet is really strong, both in the compact and the palette itself, so there is no worry about the quads falling out.  I got the palette right before I left for my vacation, so I took a quad with me in the travel compact and had no issues with it at all.  It was perfectly safe in my luggage.  This is great for people who need to touch up their makeup throughout the day and this is perfect for a day to night look.  Just deepen your crease shade, refresh your blush, and pull out a bold lip color and you can easily go from office to cocktails with the travel compact.  The only downside is that the shadows and blushes are pre-set in these quads, so you can’t mix and match.  It would have been cool to be able to sub out the blushes.  Oh well, we can’t have everything, can we?

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette

What’s also neat is that the shade names are printed on the back of each quad, and not just on the plastic protective sleeve.  That way, if you want to toss the insert, you can do so without losing the shade names.  I don’t think all of the shadows are limited edition, so if you really like a shade, I think you can see if it’s available from Tarte.

Tarte is one of my favorite brands.  I really like the formula of their shadows and especially the blushes.  Tarte usually offers shades that are more neutral and very wearable for a wide customer base.  I feel like it is a brand that I can grow with because, unlike brands like Urban Decay that cater to a younger crowd,  I can find appropriate products for any age within the line.  That is certainly the case with this palette.  I think any woman would love it, whether she’s in her 20’s or her 60’s.  All of the eyeshadow shades are easily worn, there are a good mix of mattes and shimmers, and none of the blushes are too dark or crazy.  The formula is great, smooth and easily blended.  There isn’t a bad shade in the lot.

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette Quad 1

The first quad in the palette is my favorite.  Please ignore that chunk missing from the second pan.  I dropped it while I was taking pictures and in my attempt to catch the quad, my thumbnail went right into the shadow.  *sigh*  Anyway, onto the shades.  Taj Mahal is a shimmery champagne shade.  Grand Canyon is a warm tan shade.  Big Ben is a matte khaki with a lot of gray tones.  Central Park is a beautiful matte forest green.  The swatch below (all of them, actually) is one swipe of all the shadows with no primer or base.

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette Quad 1

Savvy, the blush in quad 1, is the most neutral of the palette.  It’s a matte brown-toned mauve that warms up the face in a natural way.  I love it.  This is a great blush to use on days when you want to skip bronzer.

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette Quad 2

Quad 2 brings on the shimmer for a warm look that will look amazing in the spring and summer.  Santorini Bikini is a light shimmery peach.  Great Sphynx is a mid-tone shimmery brown.  Pacific Sunset is a blazing metallic copper bronze.  Belgian Chocolate is a milk chocolate shade with purple undertones.  It’s the least shimmery of the quad and has more of a satin finish.

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette Quad 2

Spontaneous is the only shimmery blush in the palette.  It’s a light shimmering pink with the slightest touch of peach.  There is no need to wear a highlight shade with this blush, and it would look gorgeous on younger skin.

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette Quad 3

Quad 3 is my least favorite of the four, though I love that first shade.  You can’t really see Serengeti Sand in the swatch below, because it blends in so well with my skin.  The matte cream shade is a perfect highlight.  Buckingham Palace is a shimmery taupe with some brown tones.  Rocky Mountains is a matte taupe with a decidedly gray tone.  The two shades are very similar, and I think Tarte made a mistake including them both, especially in the same quad.  Bordeaux is a blackened plum, and much darker than it looks in the pan.  I wish that Tarte had traded out one of the taupe shades in this quad for a lighter plum shade to play up some purple tones.  This quad is great for a smoky eye, but there isn’t enough variety in these shades.

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette Quad 3

Ambitious is a pink-toned mauve blush that would look good an just about anyone.  The medium shade is dark enough to show up on deeper skin tones, but not so dark that fair tones can’t wear it.  It’s a universal shade, and a great addition to the palette.

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette Quad 4

Quad 4 has some of the more unique shades in the palette.  Gold Coast is a light gold shimmer.  Eiffel Tower is a stormy matte slate gray.  Space Needle is a gorgeous sheer taupe shimmer.  I love this shade, and it’s definitely one of my favorites.  Midnight in Paris is a dark matte teal.  The four shades look really beautiful together.

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette Quad 4

Lighthearted is a very bright, medium pink.  It has some raspberry tones in it.  The shade is still wearable for fair skin tones, you just need to use a light hand.  It’s a great shade for winter to get that “just came in from the cold” look.

Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Maracuja Lip Glosses

The final three products in the Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette are the three Maracuja Lip Glosses.  Pictured above from left to right are: When in Rome, New York Minute, Czech Me Out.  The Maracuja Lip Glosses have a strong minty scent and they tingle on the lips.  I’m not the biggest fan of minty lip products because mint is an irritant.  That’s why so many lip plumpers are minty; mint makes your lips swell.  On the other hand, the tingle isn’t too bad and it does go away after a while, so it all depends on your personal taste.  The formula isn’t exactly sticky, but there is some tack to keep the gloss from fading too fast.  I don’t mind a little tack if it means the gloss will stick around for a while.  They get more comfortable as you wear them, once they dry down a little and the tingle goes away.  My basic opinion of these glosses is that if you can get past the first ten minutes of wear, then they are great.  When in Rome is a bright peachy pink with a lot of shimmer.  It doesn’t feel glittery or gritty at all.  New York Minute is a light creamy pink with lavender tones.  Czech Me Out is a dark pink-toned nude with some shimmer.  There isn’t as much shimmer as there is in When in Rome.  The swatch below was taken in the sunlight so that you could see the shimmer.  I ended up swatching them in reverse order (sorry).

(L-R) Czech Me Out, New York Minute, When in Rome

Let’s talk value for a minute.  The Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette is $48, full price.  Though at first that doesn’t seem to fit the theme of a budget beauty blog, it actually does if you do the math.  A Wet n Wild single shadow is $1.99, so let’s price the 16 Tarte shadows out at $2 each.  That’s $32 of the original $48 right there.  Now since an e.l.f Studio blush is $3, let’s price the 4 blushes at the same price.  32+12=44, so that leaves $1 each for the three full size lip glosses and the travel compact.  You can see that compared to even the cheapest drugstore brands that you can find, this palette is a good value and the quality is so much better.

I highly recommend the Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette.  It’s beautiful, the products are great, and it’s a killer value.  Like I said, the Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette is exclusive to Ulta.  You can buy it in store, or at ulta.com.  This is a limited edition palette, so there is a chance that it could sell out.  Be sure to call your local store to see if they still have it in stock before you make the trip.  Or, just order online.  Ulta.com is offering free shipping on orders of $25 or more during the holidays.  Either way, I think that the Tarte Gorgeous Getaways Palette would make a great addition to anyone’s collection.

Lorac Platinum Status Eyeshadow Palette Swatches

Lorac Platinum Status Eyeshadow Palette

Today I have the Lorac Platinum Status Eyeshadow Palette to swatch for you.  I told you about this palette and the Solid Gold palette, both exclusive to Ulta,  last week in this post.  You get five Lorac shadows and a pretty decent mirror in this travel-friendly palette for only $12.  It’s a great deal.

Lorac Platinum Status Eyeshadow Palette

The palette is about the size of a phone and has a pearl colored, iridescent quilted pattern on the packaging.  The mirror has LORAC printed on it, and the palette comes with a plastic protector over the shadows (not pictured).  The shadows themselves are a really good size.  You get .33 oz of product in this five pan palette.  For comparison, the Lorac Pro and Lorac Unzipped palettes are .32 and .40 oz respectively.  These shadows are a little larger than what you find in the UD Naked palettes, so even though this has five shades and Naked Basics has six, there is a little more product in this palette than Naked Basics and is $15 less.  The five shades in the Platinum Status palette are in the pink and purple family.  I haven’t had much time to play with the palette yet, but it is limited edition, so I wanted to at least swatch the shadows for you.  (Especially since the palettes could sell out at this low price.)

Lorac Platinum Status Eyeshadow Palette

The shadows all swatched with the same smooth, creamy texture that I have come to expect from Lorac.  The only shadow that gave me any problems was the icy pink one (second in from the left).  It’s more powdery than the other four shades, so you have to be careful with it or else there will be a lot of fall-out.  It isn’t dry or chalky, though.  The other four shades swatched beautifully.

Lorac Platinum Status Eyeshadow swatches taken in indoor light

The first shade is a light champagne with a satin finish.  Shade two is an icy pink with a slightly blue shift to it.  The third shade, which is my favorite, is a gorgeous shimmery rose.  This shade does have some warmth to it that really comes out in the sunlight.  The fourth shade is a satin plum.  It is the least pigmented of all five shadows, which is typical for purple shadows.  This is two layers, while the other shadows were just one.  The final shade in the palette is a sparkly blackened purple.  It isn’t a true black, but it may as well be because of how rich and dark it is.  I could have done without the micro glitter, but that’s just personal opinion.  I love how dark and pigmented it is.

Lorac Platinum Status Eyeshadow swatches taken in sunlight

Here are the same swatches, but in sunlight instead of indoor light.  I think the Platinum Status palette is lovely and a great value.  $12 is a pretty good price for a prestige brand like Lorac.  Both the Platinum Status  and Solid Gold palettes are exclusive to Ulta and are available in-store and at Ulta.com.  Be sure to check out my previous post (linked above) to see what the Solid Gold palette looks like.  These would make excellent stocking stuffers, or would be a great addition to a beauty gift bag.   What do you think?  Will you be hauling?

LORAC for only $12 at Ulta

Lorac Solid Gold Eyeshadow Palette

Just look at these cute five shade eyeshadow palettes from Lorac that are exclusive to Ulta.  They are only $12 and are available in stores and at ulta.com.  Check out the descriptions from Ulta’s website:

Lorac Solid Gold Eyeshadow Palette: Get chart-topping eyes with LORAC’s Solid Gold Eye Shadow Palette. Enclosed in a gorgeous, gold exterior, these 5 glamorous, warm eye shadow shades will get you ready for a sold-out show. Bring this perfectly-sized palette with you on the road and you’ll be a crowd-pleaser wherever you go! A $110 Value!

Lorac Platinum Status Eyeshadow Palette

Lorac Platinum Status Eyeshadow Palette:  Take your eyes to the next level with LORAC’s Platinum Status Eye Shadow Palette. With 5 cool, captivating eye shadow shades enclosed in a white-hot exterior, you’ll be the subject of many songs. Make ’em sing their hearts out wherever you go – just keep this perfectly-sized palette in your purse!

My only experience with Lorac is the Pro palette, which I love.  If these shadows are as good as those, then this is a total steal.  I am definitely picking up one or two of these.  They’d make great stocking stuffers or a part of a beauty gift bag for Christmas.  And who am I kidding?  I want one for myself!  The palettes are limited edition, so don’t wait too long to snag them if you are interested.