Showing posts with label swatches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swatches. Show all posts

July 3, 2014

Review & swatches: Orly "Uncharted" nail polish

I have been all about summer colors lately, well, it being summer and all

The other day I was at my local T.J. Maxx and came across the amazing nail polish section that they almost always keep fully stocked with the Orly four pack mini's and full-sized duos. So I snagged up two! One of the "Hot Shots" four packs of mini polishes ($6.99) that has a gorgeous dark-er teal (matte creme), muted purple (matte creme), hot magenta-pink (shimmer), and a gorrrrgeous peach (sparkle). I also picked up a duo of full-sized Orly nail polishes, one being a matte creme orange, and the other a true-yellow shimmer.

Safe to say I have pleanty of nail polishes to keep my review-queue full for quite some time! Phew! Today I will be reviewing & swatching the magenta-pink shimmer. It is beautiful to say the least, it is what I can only describe as a dragon fruit-type color. See that ring of color right around the white flesh of the fruit? That's exactly what this color looks like to me. 



GAH! I love it. This is a two coat formula for sure, it doesn't look terrible with just one coat but it's streaky and uneven and the second coat makes it completely opaque and perfect. It's not goopy at all and went on very smooth, not a lot of effort required to level the paint. I think I found my new favorite pink polish, it's essentially fruit-punch for your nails!

What's your favorite pink nail polish? Do you like this polish?

Review & Swatches: Rimmel ScandelEYES Waterproof Gel Eyeliner

So I have been on the hunt for ages for this eyeliner. I wanted to pick up both colors (black & brown) and every time I went they only had one or the other and there's only one place in town where it's available. Persistence pays off! Finally after many disappointing trips to K-Mart I finally found both colors stocked about a week ago.


This eyeliner is the ScandalEYES Waterproof Gel Eyeliner, is about $6 -depending on where you buy, I got mine for $6.59 each- and comes in four colors, black, brown, purple, & blue (I picked up the shades 001 Black and 002 Brown). Rimmel London makes these claims about the eyeliner: 

• Up to 24 hours of rich, intense colour that doesn't flake, smudge, smear or run.
• Easy to apply, glides easily.
• Professional brush for complete control to draw the lines you want.

Bold move, Rimmel boasting up to 24 hour wear! Now on the Rimmel website there isn't an ingrediant list and, sadly, I tossed my packaging before snapping a picture, my apologies. There's also 4 shades listed on the Rimmel website, black, brown, purple, and blue. No fancy color names here, but I don't mind.

Now, on to the good stuff! 


Included brush: It comes with a brush, which I tested on my hand doing the initial swatches and it just made too think of a line for my taste and so I kept them, but haven't used them to apply the product to my eyes. However, that's not to say they're bad brushes, they're very soft and firm enough to use in a practical way, not so firm that they'll hurt your eye though.


Application: this eyeliner applies very smoothly, it's nice and soft in the pot, easy to pick up on your brush, and doesn't drag or skip at all during application. It takes a minute to set so you have some time to smudge (if you want to), go back and correct any little blips if you have shakey hands, etc.


Wear: this product wears AMAZINGLY on me. I am beyond impressed, Rimmel! I have major issues with gel eyeliners, every single one I try either is too dry, cracks and crumbles, or just never truely dries causing endless smears. I can put this eyeliner on at 8 in the morning when the forecast is calling for 90% humidity, thunderstorms, and a high of 86 and know that I will see only the slightest transfer onto my lower lash line. The performance is amazing with these! It does not smudge, it doesn't crack or flake, and I only see the slightest hint of transfer if it's extremely humid/hot that day and I'm wearing it on my upper waterline.


  **Note: in the above photo, I wet the entire swatch, and rubbed only the.    right-most side with my index finger. Much like in the photo above that, except I omitted labeling the original side/adding the white "wall" to seperate them.**

Formula: the formula is very, very creamy, rich, pigmented, and smooth. It glides on without any extra effort to "make it cooperate", and there is zero need to "work with it" for any length if time to get the desired result. You do need a relatively steady hand, however, not as steady as you'd need with, say, liquid eyeliner. This is the blackest black gel eyeliner I have ever used (I've used high end, drugstore, etc. everything from Maybelline to Smashbox) and it doesn't fade whatsoever. I'm also pleased to say the brown is a true brown, no "black brown", and the brown is just as beautifully pigmented as the black! It's gorgeous. In the pot the Black appears completely matte (and applies so). The brown appears to have a very small amount of micro-shimmers in it but once applied they're really not noticable at all, and you won't get any crazy shimmer on your face when removing or if you accidentally sleep with it on.

My final verdict: both of these eyeliners can wear for 12+ hours on me (I would never wear one for a whole 24 to test that claim, sorry!) without any sliding around, cracking, flaking, etc. The pigmentation is beyond perfect, super rich and saturated colors. The waterproof claim is definitely true also, I washed my swatches on my hand with dish soap and water and they didn't budge, it's insane. Although, they do remove easily with an oil-based makeup remover (I use olive oil to remove all my eye makeup). 

These are my new Holy Grail gel eyeliners, I'm absolutely in lovvveee. 10/10 stars for me, and I'd definitely reccomend these to anyone in search of a great, and affordable, gel eyeliner.