makeup inspiration: jem and the holograms

heyyo.




(image from bestofthe80s.wordpress.com)

this is jem and she rocked my world on television when i was a kid. she's so cool and i totally wanted to have pink hair &front a band.

was about to do a simple look for the day when i suddenly swerved to the wild side by choosing to do a jem-inspired look.

it didn't help that i happened to be wearing a purple dress.

since the cartoon's tagline is 'totally outrageous', there's no other way to go but 80s glam rock, mdm.

so. then.
here's the look i came up with.


i decided to stick to the main two colours jem is associated with - pink and purple, and immediately i thought of noise eyeshadow in the urban decay vice palette and got straight down to work.

up close


all colours used are from vice, they are:-
noise (bright medium cerise pink):
on the entire lid till the brow bone

freebird (light metallic rose gold with glitter): on the crease

vice (metallic royal purple with red tones): swept to form a 'v' from the outer corner of the eye to the under of the brow bone (midway) and also along the lash line from the outer and stop at the middle

anonymous (skin foundation tone): on the brow bone

provocateur (warm silver-ish lilac with pink tones and glitter): on the brow bone and also at the inner corner of the eye

besides these shadows i also used coffret d'or eyeshadow primer, liquid eyeliner and mascara to complete the eye look.

&what would the 80s be without neon?


to round off the look i chose a neon pink lipstick from topshop makeup called 'brighton rock'.

there. done. my take on jem.
it's all or nothing, man.

go bold or go home.
xoxo,
nais.

review: stila merry & bright holiday 2012 palette and lip glaze set

hi loves.
earlier today i dressed up to the nines ie., full make up (using colours from this palette), nice dress, colour tights et al but the thing was i only went to the food court...

not the club, not a hipster joint.

just a non air-conditioned food court (maxwell market).
lotsa yum yums there...

but who cares?
i just felt like dressing up today to match my makeup.
why must i dress sloppily just becos im going to the food court and not some establishment??

i hope more people (especially my countrymen infamous for their t-shirt, shorts & slippers) will be more inspired to dress up for themselves.

not just to please anyone but yourself.

anyways, darlings.
today i have this baby to review


stila holiday 2012 merry & bright collectible palette and lip glaze set

what a mouthful. but yeah
open up the palette and you'll see





the palette up close...

the palette contains a mirror (above the instructions, not pictured), simple makeup instructions, six eyeshadows and one convertible color at the bottom.

swatches of the eyeshadows


six altogether.

from the top:-
chill (disappeared into my skin)/ glisten/ joyful/ ebony/ butterscotch/ molasses

chill: skin beige, matte

glisten: light pinkish brown shimmer

joyful: soft apricot brown shimmer with a tinge of copper

ebony: black, matte

butterscotch: medium nude brown, matte

molasses: soft chocolate brown shimmer

makeup instructions


as in the pic, the instructions:-
1. apply chill from lash line to brow bone

2. apply molasses onto lid

3. blend butterscotch into crease

4. diffuse ebony or molasses
under lower lash line to create a sultry eye

5. apply joyful to inner corner of the eye

6. apply lillium (the convertible color) to cheeks and lips to complete the look

okk... i followed these steps and improvised a little and ended up with...








i improvised by applying ebony along my lash line and glisten to highlight my brow bone.

you get 3 mattes and 3 shimmers and their quality is good enough.
it's best to use a brush than fingers to pick up product and apply onto your lids for better shade definition, layering and blending.

colours need to be built up but not with too much effort.
ebony and molasses are pigmented.
the lighter shades def need layering.

swatch of lillium


applied heavily on the left
blended on the right

lillium is the main reason i got this palette.
it is such a great colour that flatters alot of skintones, i believe.

lillium is a medium nude pinkish brown that when applied, makes you radiant and flushing naturally but go easy with lillium first.

apply with a light hand and build up from there. i didn't know better and ended up with clown cheeks.

plus points for lillium for being very creamy, pigmented and blendable.

lillium lasted about 4 hours on me with obvious fading but im still very happy with it.
on my lips, lillium turned into a light nude pink that acts like a lip concealer...

swatch of kitten lip glaze


kitten is a metallic warm pink bronze with micro fine glitter.
it feels a little sticky but i can bear it.

i have a feeling kitten will look better on top of other lipsticks.

overall thoughts
merry & bright is not a must have, i have to say, even though this palette is my first from stila.
my first stila product is the ever famous kitten eyeshadow.

but. but... as my first stila palette im kinda won over becos each product in this palette does its job ok to give me a pulled together look whenever i do not want to think too much about what colours to match on my face and it's also perfect for travel (so compact!).

totally lovin lillium.
im glad merry & bright introduced me to this wonder girl and i might get a full size when i finish this and my canmake cream blushers.

for collectors of stila makeup palettes, i don't think this palette will garner a standing ovation but for me, a practical girl (*snort*), this does fine.

and sometimes fine is swell.
xoxo,
ah nais.

edit!:
ok i take it back, all is not that 'swell'. i found something im not too pleased with this palette.

even though i use a brush to pick up and apply the shadows, there is still fall out and this becomes an issue when flecks of ebony (black, the darkest in the palette and directly above lillium) get on top of my dear lillium and as a result the colour gets muddied.

so if you have this palette, please keep the plastic film cover.
it will come in handy, yes siree.
use it to cover and protect lillium from any fall out when you pick up the shadows.

review: urban decay vice eyeshadow palette

i can't recreate the hyperventilation and yelps i did when i was presented with this baby in pictures.

but anyways...


look how it's beckoning me...
it's not my fault. can't fight it!


out of the paper box.
cue the hallelujah chorus.

okayy.
back to normal programming.
(warning: long post& lots of gushing ahead)

when opened, she shows her true colours...


gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous
baby's got 20 new colours (0.8g each) in 4 rows of 5 shadows each.


back of the box
pictures& names of the individual shades.

the following are swatches on the back of my palm with no eyeshadow primer and roughly 1 to 2 swipes each.

yesh. all 20 can fit in there.
big hands i have.


normal lighting.


with flash.

down to the review proper, i will talk about these babies row by row. n il give them nicknames for easier reference &becos i like it that way.

1st row: the antiques


top to bottom:-
desperation/ muse/ jagged/ blitz/
penny lane

desperation: purplish brown metallic taupe. a great taupe staple.

muse: dark chocolate brown with glitter. very buttery and pigmented.

jagged: antiqued (blacken) olive gold. experienced major fall out with this one and it is a little sheer, you need to layer on more product for a deeper colour. not impressed with this gritty mess although i had high expectations for this colour.

blitz: great shade of metallic gold that's not too light and yellow. very wearable gold and will look great with red lips.

penny lane: metallic light peach with copper tones.

my stand outs for the antiques:-
desperation, muse& blitz.
desperation and muse will be great for smokey looks especially muse (very easy to use for a brown smokey eye look).

2nd row: the mermaids


this is the row of shades that made me lemm for vice so bad.
one word: chaos. chaos!
and the shades are great marine colours that i always gravitate to.

top to bottom:-
junkie/ chaos/ occupy/ unhinged/ black market

junkie: dusky blue toned emerald. very nice jewel colour.

chaos: electric blue. reminiscent of rescue beauty lounge fan collection 'ikb 2012' nail polish colour. slightly chalky but that's expected for colours this intense and/or neon. more layering needed for even colour distribution.

occupy: graphite shimmer with silver glitter. if i can rename it il call it 'oil slick' cos im romantic like that.

unhinged: cool toned metallic teal. this colour reminds me of mermaids (ariel!)

black market: brownish black. very pigmented.

my stand outs for the mermaids:-
all. all. all.
chaos is a definite shoo-in fave (probably my most fave) and the reason many beauty junkies desire this palette so much.

i didn't think much of occupy at first but i love it now. looks like petrol under sunlight with its purplish sheen.

i love them all and i shan't gush anymore. next!

3rd row: the jewel tones


this row of colours is the next fave row after the mermaids.
they remind me of jem (of jem and the holograms) the 80s pink haired female cartoon character (i really wanted to be her even today heh).

top to bottom:-
provocateur/ rapture/ vice/ noise/ armor

provocateur: warm silver-ish lilac with pink tones and glitter. reminiscent of urban decay midnight cowboy. very buttery.

rapture: frosted grey-ish eggplant purple. great for a smokey eye.

vice: metallic royal purple with red tones, slightly frosted. pigmented.

noise: bright medium cerise pink (bright but not neon yet), a little chalky but who cares?
great colour.

armor: light olive taupe with silver glitter, slightly frosted.

my stand outs for the jewels:- rapture, vice& noise. of cos noise is a definite yes as it is the chaos of this row.

row 4: the age of innocence aka the barely-theres


ok, i admit. this is a little yawn inducing for me. reminds me of my ballet shoes and babies. don't ask me why.

this row of colours is like the white shirt/black dress in your cupboard. boring but necessary. darling, it's not like you can wear party clothes for every occasion....

top to bottom:-
nevermind/ echo beach/ anonymous/ freebird/ laced

nevermind: heh, immediate association with nirvana's nevermind. metallic medium
warm brown, slightly frosted.

echo beach: very frosted light champagne gold.

anonymous: it sure is. skin foundation tone (NC15?) great on the entire lid as base for bright colours like chaos and noise and it's great for wearing alone to brighten and even out natural lid colour. although nameless but useful.

freebird: light metallic rose gold with glitter, slightly frosted. pretty shade i admit.

laced: muted nude grey-ish brown, matte.

my stand outs:-
just becos it is such a useful& necessary shade - anonymous.
and laced becos it is understatedly beautiful.

overall thoughts:-
urban decay is a brand that i discovered when i was 17. my first product i got was a lip product called lip gunk in 'gash'.
goth like, i would wear gash on my lips with heavy eyeliner. as usual what's new...
fond memories of being 17.

heyy i really tried so hard to resist (& i did, this was gifted to me) but i think i lemmed the most for this palette even surpassing the naked palette.

why? becos the colourways can take me from day to night and i can really have fun playing with all the colours knowing i have use for all of them.

well and the last and most important reason that drew me in to this palette is chaos.
c h a o s

now im gonna talk about packaging...
this palette in ud's own words is 'gorgeously luxe' and it is with the jewel inlaid case and heftiness of the entire palette and im so happy it is not made up of cardboard (book of shadows...) and its texture is soft and suede to the touch.

great improvement and well thought out.

vice comes with a double ended brush. good but i kinda wish they gave a mini sized primer potion instead. but still im happy.

this palette is out at sephora at sg$88. grabbb it.

leaving you with one last pic of the beauty...