Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Wet n Wild Fergie Collection: Primer, Highlighter and Lipstick Review

I purchased a few items from the newest Wet 'n Wild Fergie release, which I believe is called the Centerstage collection. I found these items at Walgreens, and pricing information will be listed for each item.


First up is the Take on the Day eyeshadow primer. This was $4.99 (there are $1 off coupons on the display at the moment as well, so keep that in mind... I only paid $3.99).


The ingredients list is quite long and does include Talc, but there does not appear to be any alcohol in the formula. I've only done limited testing of this product and it will take weeks for me to fully test it, but so far I can say that it works just as well if not better than Too Faced Shadow Insurance for me. The texture is quite runny, so one small complaint I have is that a lot tends to come out of the squeeze tube when you use it. It has a slightly tacky quality even after drying and I feel that it works very well for the price. This will definitely be going in my kit once I buy a second one.

A new line of lipsticks were also released with this collection, called Perfect Pout Lipcolor, and I picked up one color just to try them out. They appeared to be quite similar to the Megalast lipsticks in style and color, so I wasn't too bothered. I believe this was $2.99, but it could have been a dollar more at $3.99.


The packaging is admittedly pretty tacky and cheap, but honestly appropriate for Wet n Wild and Fergie teaming up. I don't mean that in a bad way, but it's not luxe packaging. The lipstick itself has that squared/rounded tip, just like the Megalast lipsticks. This color is Di-Vinely Chilled and is a beautiful shimmering burgundy. I did find this color to be a little drying, and I figured it was because of the sparkle. It did have decent lasting power on me, approximately 4 or 5 hours, but was mostly gone after eating. The little bits of shimmer didn't go everywhere though, which I appreciated.


Here is a swatch of Di-Vinely Chilled on my arm, along with a pink eyeshadow from a Sleek palette swatched on the left with no primer/ on bare skin, and on the right over the Take on the Day primer. You can see the vibrancy and payoff difference between the two.


And here is Di-Vinely Chilled on the lips. This was two solid coats.

Last, but not least, my personal favorite item from this collection: the To Reflect Shimmer Palette in Rosé Champagne Glow. This was $4.99 and is literally HUGE:


It easily dwarfs my hand. Onto what everyone really wants, a closeup of the marbling:


This particular shade has swirls of champagne, pink, gold and a burgundy tone. I would say this is more of a highlighter for light to medium skintones, and a very pale pink blush on fair skintones. It imparts the most beautiful glow, seriously. I absolutely love this and think it's a competitor for Mac's mineralize skinfinishes.


I can't really capture it, but there you go.

That's all I have for now from the new collection, and I don't think I'm getting anything else. See anything you like? What have you already gotten from this?

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Shany Cosmetics Eyeliner Gel Set Review + Swatches

As with my last post, for Christmas my husband got me a few things from Shany Cosmetics. I saw a video review on YouTube for these and was interested in the bright colors and using them as an eyeshadow base.

The set can be purchased here: http://shanycosmetics.com/All-Shany-Products/Eyeliner-Gel-Set.html

The current price is $30 but any other time I've checked the item, it's been listed at $20. The prices fluctuate quite a lot on this site so I would recommend monitoring it for a few days before buying. The net weight of all the product in the jars is 5g. For reference, a Mac Fluidline is 3g. Thus, the pots are small and you don't get much product, but these are also inexpensive and hopefully will not dry out before you are able to use one up. As I stated in the other post, our items arrived really fast from this company. 


The set comes housed in a nice box, with a plastic tray holding the eyeliners that slides out as such:


This packaging in particular is quite sturdy, I may keep them stored in this, I haven't decided yet. The jars are plastic with square clicking caps, and a plastic insert to keep the product from drying out.



I intend to use these mostly as cream eyeshadow bases. All of the colors are pigmented, though some had streaking issues. I think when using them as an eyeliner you'd have better luck over primer and eyeshadow than just how I've shown them here on my arm.





01 is a burnt orange/russet brown. Love this.

02 is a medium bright blue and had some minor patchiness issues.

03 is an aqua, again with a little streaking.

04 is a pea/olive green, really unique and opaque.

05 is a medium grey, very pigmented.

06 is a darker, close to navy blue. This was the only disappointing color. It's way different than it appears in the jar and is patchy.





07 is a periwinkle grey blue, really lovely. Little streaky on the eyeliner application.

08 is your bog standard matte black. Very pigmented.

09 is a classic vibrant orange. Very pigmented.

10 is a beautiful plum and again very opaque and smooth.

11 is a lavender-lilac. Another unique shade and surprisingly smooth and opaque for a purple.

12 is a deeper olive green, good pigmentation.

Overall I think that this is an excellent value for the cost. At $20, you are paying less than $2 per pot. While these are similar to the generic ebay liners, I feel like there are a few unique colors in here. I would have liked to see a white, solely because it would make a great base.

Shany Cosmetics Smooch Collection Lipsticks Sets 1 & 2

For Christmas, my husband got me a few items from Shany Cosmetics, a brand that I discovered through Google searching for brush aprons. In this post I'm going to be doing an overview of two of their lipstick sets.

Set 1 is sold here: http://shanycosmetics.com/All-Shany-Products/Smooch-Collection-Lipstick-Set-1.html
Set 2 is sold here: http://shanycosmetics.com/All-Shany-Products/Smooch-Collection-Lipstick-Set-2.html

The price listed at the time of writing this post is $18 for each set, or you can bundle both sets and save 20%, bringing the price down to $32.40 (my husband said he paid $12 each for them). The box says "10gx6pcs" for weight, a Mac lipstick is 3g for reference. When I ordered from the company and when my husband did, we both received our items EXTREMELY fast.

The lipsticks come in a cardboard box as such:


The top pulls off to reveal the lipsticks with their gold cap facing up:


Since opening these, I have flipped the lipsticks over so that the number and color face upward, as I also find it easier to take them out. Unfortunately, the packaging is quite cheap (which is to be expected) and the gold tops pop off constantly.

The tube is a long and slender matte black finish with Shany Cosmetics on the cap, and the color and number on the bottom sticker.


The lipstick itself is a narrow twist up style, similar to the Mac Sheen Supremes only much narrower.


The texture of the lipstick is slightly dry, but I wouldn't say it's drying. It's got a soft texture and a slight balmy quality. I would say they are similar to the Wet n Wild Mega Last lipsticks in feel, though those are a little more pigmented.

Swatches of Set 1:





My favorites in this set are 02 and 04. I grabbed a couple of Mac lipsticks to do a quick comparison:


Morange is lighter and more yellow toned in comparison to Shany 05.


Shany 02 is really nothing like any of these but it seemed like it might be in the tube!

Swatches of Set 02 (I messed up the numbers on this, 07 =01, 08=02 and so on):






Set 02 is similar to Set 01, I don't think you need both. The pinky coral (05) in this set is really lovely, and so is the fuchsia, 02.

Overall, for the price, I think these are a great deal, especially for a makeup artist or someone starting to build their collection. I do think that the packaging needs work, but you could easily melt these into a lipstick palette or just superglue the gold caps down.