The Dupe Struggle

So as I mentioned in my Grunge makeup post, I use a matte medium brown all over my lid, and although I don't do full out grunge eyes every day, I do like the look the matte colors give my eyes. Tight now I am using the third shade in my Makeup Revolution Iconic 1 palette, which works great, but I am afraid of running out of that shade soon and want to get a new shadow without buying the whole new palette, because all of the other shades are still really full in that palette.

And as you can see, the Iconic 1 is the equivalent to the Naked palette from Urban Decay. SO that had me thinking that I could just buy Naked by itself because I knew it wasn't exclusive just to that palette. So I looked it up and this is what I found:

I AM NOT SPENDING 19 DOLLARS ON AN EYE SHADOW! I want this color and I want a matte brown so bad though! So thus began my ridiculous online hunt for a dupe for Urban Decay's Naked eye shadow

Now if you type in dupes for Urban Decay Naked, all you get is dupes for the palette, and that is more frustrating than anything. So first, I tried to find a Wet N Wild shadow, since that is my favorite, but nothing was striking me, so I mewed on. My mom said she had a Milani shadow that looked similar, but upon further inspection, we found out that it was a satin-matte color and that will simply not do. 

I don;t want to buy a whole new palette but all of the browns that look remotely right are all really shimmery and I can't find anything I really like. This is becoming a real struggle. And i thought I just had a few, but as I was inserting pictures into this post, I found swatches online that revealed them to be shimmery. ERRRRRR!

Someone haw any ideas?

<3 Allison

Dreaming Big

I'm going to try really hard not to go overboard with Polyvore posts but I'm absolutely obsessed with the site so I put together a set to show off my High(er) end wants because even though I'm poor and I know that my makeup is totally awesome, I can dream.

Dream a Little Dream by tinypockets featuring a matte palette eyeshadow

Products included:

The Porefessional from Benefit (le sigh, I want so bad!!!!!)
Naked 1 &2 Palettes from Urban Decay (the Jesus of nude eye shadows, IMO)
24/7 Liner from Urban Decay (I have a tiny nub left of mine... replaced it with NYX... close but not as good as UD)
Macadamia Oil Deep Repair Mask (I'm obsessed with buying deep conditioners. I want this one so bad!)
Clinique Chubby Sticks (I want all of them!)
Benefit High Beam (I just want it, okay?)

xx
Ames

Playing With Contouring

I'm not that experienced with makeup. No one taught me to do it. It's just been me and YouTube tutorials for a long time but as I expand my kit, I decided to start learning more, including learning to contour.

My face can look very round sometimes and I've always been jealous of people with strong cheek bones (Adele, hello?) so learning to contour has been a goal. I convinced Pete to just have a lazy Saturday around the apartment (other than doing some tidying, of course) and I got to sit down and play in my makeup box, which I think I need a bigger makeup box if I don't stop buying stuff!

Here's my before, during, and after shots of my adventures in contouring. It's definitely not perfect but I'm much for satisfied with my cheek contouring than I have been in a while. I'm going to continue practicing with the nose contouring so please feel free to leave tips or constructive criticism in the comments!

The Before picture is me with zero makeup and with freshly washed and toned skin. The During picture is with tinted moisturizer, concealer, and powder. The After is with a full face.

Products Used:

Urban Decay Tinted Moisturizer in Halo

NYC Loose Transluscent Powder

Yaby Concealer in Buff

Elf Eyebow Kit (for eyebrows and contouring)

NYX Nude on Nude Palette (I used the white in the palette for highlighting)

NYX Eyeshadow in Skin Tight (used as a peach blush)

Cailyn Cosmetics Gel Liner in iron (smudged in lashline)

NYX slim eye pencil in black for tight lining

Covergirl Clump Crusher Mascara

The Contouring Guide I Used:

Urban Decay Sale [Haul]

I am dumb and subscribe to Urban Decay's email list so I get all these friendly reminders about all the things I want to buy but can't/shouldn't. I'm a genius.

I'm usually pretty good about just looking at the pretty pictures, drooling mildly, and then promptly deleting the email. No matter how many $16 palettes I see, I have yet to buy one.

Well... then it happened. The email. The sale email.

I clicked on the link. It took me to the sale page where I found myself gasping for breath as I noticed their Tinted Moisturizer had been marked down to $5. Yes, you read that right, five dollars.

Done. It was over at that point. I clicked and ended up in checkout, where I was rewarded with a free travel size bottle of De Slick. (OMG!OMG!OMG! Been dying to try that too!)

I was hooked. I made my purchase and yesterday, it arrived. In all of it's Urban Decay glory. Just waiting for me in our mailbox when I got home.

I have never been so happy. (All right, that's an over exaggeration buy you get my point.)

So far, I like the tinted moisturizer. While it's much thicker than my Neutrogena that I've been using for a long time, it does offer pretty nice coverage and once I got the hang of it, blending wasn't that hard to do. Would I buy it again at full price? Lol probably not but hey, I only spent $13.75 including shipping so I cannot complain; that's just $2 more than my Neutrogena so it was totally worth a shot and so far, I'm liking it.