Category Archives: Makeup
Halloween 2016: Mystique (X-Men)
Halloween 2016 is done and dusted and my group of friends put together an amazing ensemble of costumes! We went as X-Men and, quite frankly, we nailed it!
Since the photos are always the most fun, I’ll post them first! At the end of this post you’ll find more details on my costume and face makeup as Mystique!
X-Men Group Costume
(Julie from Swatch and Review)
(Kaitlyn from Kaitlyn Elisabeth Beauty)
Photos from Church Street in Toronto
Mystique Costume + Makeup Details
My costume itself was fairly straight forward.
- I bought the boots on Ebay – I upsized since they were shipping from China and I thought they wouldn’t fit me – turns out upsizing was too big in the foot, but it fit me perfectly in the legs.
- I opted for a blue body suit to keep me warm and to suck all the jiggly bits in. It’s a blue morph suit that I got at a party store: I cut the head off and it was good to go!
- The gloves are also from the same party store.
- The white tunic was actually a full length shirt/dress thing I got on Ebay from somewhere in England. It had slits down the sides which was a huge help, I just trimmed the sides in so that they tapered to more of a point in the center of the panels.
- My belt is a bunch of plastic skulls that I drilled through and then strung a shoelace through them to hold them together.
- The little skull on my head came from a dollar store treat that my husband found as a last ditch effort to find a small enough skull for my head!
- Sadly, the wig I ordered never actually arrived from China, so my wonderful friend Alison shipped me her Poison Ivy wig from last year’s costume. Thank heavens for that – the wig is such a huge piece!
- The contacts are from SpookyEyes.com and they were FANTASTIC. They added an incredible touch that really completed the costume. And for a complete newbie to putting in contacts, they were really, really not that bad! The ones I wore are the Glimmer Gold contacts.
Now, on to the makeup.
- I primed my face with Make Up For Ever‘s Smoothing Primer to make sure this base would last all evening.
- I used MAC‘s Paint Stick in Marine Ultra and sponged *3* layers on to my skin, letting each layer dry about two minutes between applications.
- I then set my entire face with a healthy amount of RCMA No-Color Powder to try to make the cream base as transferproof as possible. I let my face bake for about 15 minutes before I removed the powder.
- To add dimension to my face, I went in with Sugarpill‘s Velocity eyeshadow and contoured with it. I also set my face with it to help keep the blue base from looking patchy.
- I uses Sugarpill Velocity and Sleek Ink to carve out my eyes. I also used Ink to fill in my brows.
- I also used Make Up For Ever‘s Aqua XL Liners (M-26 and M-22) to line my upper and lower water lines. I used Kat Von D‘s Tattoo Liner in Trooper to create a wing, used some Urban Decay Perversion mascara and popped on a pair of Esqido Lashlorette falsies.
- I used MAC‘s Brick lip pencil and MAC Russian Red lipstick to finish off my lips.
And there we have it! My finished Mystique look! I had so much fun this and I’m already starting to brainstorm for what we can do next!
Kat Von D Metal Crush (Review & Swatches)
I am laaaate to the party with the Kat Von D Metal Crush shadows! They were really hard to get my hands on when they first launched (and some of the shades are continuously out of stock because they’re so popular!) and the price point was a bit jarring ($25 CAD per shadow!).
However, I was at IMATS earlier this month and they had reduced prices so I decided to pick up two shades I’d had sitting in my Sephora cart for a VERY long time! It worked out kind of well because I’d also been sent one shade from PR (although it had arrived completely shattered and I had to repress it) so I was able to try out a few more shades and speak to the formula a bit more.
Oddly, I didn’t pick up the more vibrant shades (for once in my life) – I was sent Synergy (the bronze metallic) and I bought Raw Power (red/mahogany) and Thunderstruck (white duochrome/pearl). Thunderstruck is the shade everyone seems to rave about and it is ALWAYS out of stock on Sephora’s web site!
Swatched, you can see just how intense the pigmentation is. All of these shadows are metallic (hence the name Metal Crush), so you’ll need to pull in some mattes to complete your look.
This is a semi-out of focus shot (and unedited) to show you the colour dimension in Thunderstruck. It can look pure white straight on, but from an angle it reflects pink and orange and occasionally some tinges of blue (it’s quite opalescent). It’s a great shadow to put all over the lid and then pair it with other colours on the outer corner because it can shape itself to fit a lot of different colours. I know a lot of people also wear it as a highlighter on their cheekbones, but I was oddly not as keen on it that way.
Eye Looks Using Metal Crush
My Thoughts
I found that the Metal Crush shadows were extremely pigmented and beautiful. The shade range is gorgeous and exciting, and I do wish I had some of the brighter shades because they look absolutely incredible. The major stickler for people may be the price point ($25 CAD/$21 USD). Sure, the pans are much larger than your average eyeshadow (you’re getting about 1 gram more than normal), but if you want to pick up a handful of shades, you’re pushing close to $100 which can be a bit of a punch to the wallet. I am INCREDIBLY happy that Kat Von D released her Metal Matte palette for the holiday season which is an amazing value since you get not only a huge variety of her Metal Crush shadows, but you also get a ton of her matte shadows. While I don’t own this palette (yet) myself, the reviews have all said that the quality is amazing and on par for the brand. The Metal Matte palette is limited edition, so make sure you pick it up while you can!
To sum up my feelings on these shadows… I like the packaging, I think the shadow quality is excellent, the colours are beautiful (they’ve got some GORGEOUS vibrant shades!) and you’re getting quite a bit of product in the pans.
The Kat Von D Metal Crush eyeshadows can be purchased on Sephora.ca for $25 CAD each or on sephora.com for $21 USD each. Or, get a bit more bang for your buck by grabbing the Metal Matte holiday palette ($74 CAD/$60 USD).
The shade "Synergy" was sent to me for consideration.
Swatch Sunday: Teeez Unrestrained Style
Quick Swatch Sunday today! This is Teeez Cosmetics‘ To Die For Eyeshadow Quad in Unrestrained Style.
Teeez Cosmetics Unrestrained Style Swatches
