
Whoa. Excuse the absence. I'm back now...and all I need is my usb cord for my camera. I should just pick a box and tear it up until said usb is found. First off, to those of you celebrating Lent...Happy Lent! It's one of my favorite times of year (although I know for many, it's probably the worst...sacrifice? Are you kidding me?!)
Anyhow, back sometime following the holidays, I told you all that I had received some things in the mail that I would be testing for quality and value. Well, they have passed the test (all three months later), and I wanted to share the first one with you today.
Have you ever perused the MAC counter and thought--who the heck would ever wear that bright yellow or blue shadow? But in the depths of your inner being, your heart was just dying to actually own the colors and see what you could come up with? Well, even if you don't have these strange thoughts counter-side like *cough cough* some of us may, it probably occurred to you that unless you were planning on building some huge collection of the world's most unused eyeshadow shades, you weren't going to buy the stuff. But what if, right? A silver or gold would tone down that blue, and an amber shade would really make the yellow pop, don't you say?
With this in mind, I considered what I would do had I owned a huge palette with colors that I've only seen in the pages of couture magazines and on the faces of clowns. Bam! Mid-consideration, I am introduced to something that has changed my life and the way I view color wheels. Coastal Scents Ultra Shimmer 88 Eyeshadow Palette practically fell into my lap (well, after waiting for a couple of weeks for the holiday mail to be sorted and delivered). What is this, you say? It's a collection of amazingly pigmented, great-quality colors that you can play with to your heart's content. And guess what? It's $25. No, this isn't one of those block party combos that you can find on the end of the aisle at Walgreens over the holidays. It isn't even one of the sorts that Costco used to sell. This has been test-run by some of the most popular makeup artists out there, as well as my own makeup-obsessed friends and yours truly. The payoff for shade is amazing. No cheap filler or excess shimmer--just real color. Each color is the size of a dime (which is fine by me--how often are you going to hit pan with bright shades like these?), and for the price of about 1.5 MAC shadows, you get 88 colors! Sure, the website leaves a bit to be desired--but I've ordered, and am genuinely pleased. Here's what I did...I purchased the shimmer palette, matte palette (I don't like total shimmer all the time), and the neutral palette (which deserves its own review...let's just say PERFECT for work and everyday). With today's crunch, if you are going to indulge in some treats, why not get the most for your money?

Above is a look that I used the palette for, in celebration of New Years. I thought--red? I'm no harlot! But ahhh, that can all be changed with the accompanying charcoal and silver...