MAC Bare My Soul Eyeshadow Quad - Review, Swatches and Dupes

MAC Bare My Soul quad

Haaa Bare My Soul, one of the most sought-after MAC eyeshadow quad since... well, a very long time. I, myself, haven't been this excited about a MAC item for a while now. In fact, the whole Temperature Rising collection is absolutely delightful and i would have gotten the entire collection if only i could afford it.

But, back to this eyeshadow quad. In my opinion, what makes this quad so special isn't so much how the colors might be unique (because they aren't, we'll get to that in a minute) but rather the quality of texture, the great color payoff as well as the brilliant combination of these four colors that thus offers us endless possibilities.

Bare My Soul consists of:

- Romantico, a pink-ish taupe.

- Bare My Soul, a golden orange.

- Friendly, a deep reddish brown with flecks of copper.

- When In Rio, a deep brown/green duochrome.

Left to right: Romantico, Bare My Soul, Friendly, When In Rio

Let's review each color along with their dupes, shall we?

Firstly, Romantico isn't as pigmented as i would have expected of a veluxe pearl finish, but it still has very decent color payoff and quite a smooth texture. It is very luminous too. A possible dupe is YDK by Urban Decay, except that it might be a little bit pinker and deeper than Romantico.

Urban Decay YDK on the left, MAC Romantico on the right.

Then comes Bare My Soul. This one has good color payoff and applies smoothly for a lustre finish. Nothing exceptional on its own though, nothing too bad either. I don't have any orange-based gold eyeshadow to match it with as i usually steer clear of orange-based anything. I still did a comparison swatch with Urban Decay's Half Baked eyeshadow. Half Baked is a truer gold with a stronger metallic finish.

Left: Urban Decay Half Baked; Right: MAC Bare My Soul.

Then, Friendly... this one has both incredible color payoff and smooth texture. It seriously feels like butter. Typically the kind of things that i expect from veluxe pearl finish eyeshadows. Friendly did not disappoint at all. I compared it to Urban Decay's Darkhorse which i find to be of the same intensity except that it has golden flecks (instead of copper) and is a bit cooler than MAC Friendly.

Urban Decay Darkhorse on the left; MAC Friendly on the right.

Finally, we have When In Rio. This eyeshadow was the one i was expecting the most of. It's definitely not as smooth as Friendly, essentially because this one is a Frost - not a Veluxe Pearl. It's not dry or chalky either, which is great. But, my favorite thing about When In Rio is... it's kind of everything i wanted MAC's Club eyeshadow to be.

Club is quite dry, with a very strong (almost overpowering) red base and a feeble green (almost verdigris) duochrome. I do not like that. On the contrary, When In Rio has a lesser red/more subtle base with a stronger/deeper green duochrome!

Here, i compared When In Rio to Club and to Urban Decay's Loaded eyeshadow. Loaded is definitely a deeper forest green. Loaded's color payoff is incredibly stronger, which also makes it more difficult to use if you were going for a more subtle look.

Left to right: MAC Club, MAC When In Rio, Urban Decay Loaded.

That's all for now folks! I hope everybody managed to get their Bare My Soul quad, and if not, i hope i offered you a few decent alternatives.

Estee Lauder - Heat Wave Illuminating Powder Gelee

Estée Lauder - Heat Wave Illuminating Powder Gelée

What can i say. I have a thing for gold (and highlighters). People love lipsticks, eyeshadows, foundations, clothes, handbags or shoes... well... i have a thing for all of the above but, really, gold anything is my thing.

I had my eyes on this Powder Gelée since the promo pictures for the Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess 2013 collection have been released and let me tell you, it was everything i wished it would be, and more.

I say this highlighter is gold but it does have a hint of peach that my skintone seems to bring out a little more than others. However, it looked like straight gold when swatched on my fingertips.

Heat Wave has a very strong metallic finish that i wish my camera could have picked up (i really tried though!). The texture is extremely creamy, it doesn't feel like a pressed powder at all.

I dare you to go to Estée Lauder - blindfolded - to swatch this splendor and scream with joy. You might look like a complete wacko - for the blindfold part, not the screaming part, because... duhhh... screaming while swatching something like this is completely normal. Oh well, the things we have to do for research.

Being metallic and creamy, this highlighter translates into a beautiful glistening finish when blended onto the skin. Not glittery, not powdery, not chunky, not chalky... it's truly glistening, imagine that. Hopefully, you will be able to see that on my swatch!

My guess is that it will definitely make a great gold eyeshadow too!

Estée Lauder - Heat Wave Illuminating Powder Gelée swatch
(Heavy swatch on the left; Blended on the right)

NOTD: Deborah Lippmann - Across The Universe

Deborah Lippmann - Across The Universe

Haaaa my very first Deborah Lippmann nail polish.

Across The Universe is a gorgeous dark blue base, topped with lime and aqua blue/silver hexagonal glitters along with bright blue shimmer.

Although i definitely enjoyed the complexity of color, the quality of finish and the ease of application, this nail polish hasn't gotten me as excited as i thought i would be. Not that it was a complete disappointment but i was kind of expecting more from it. Not sure what exactly, but definitely something magical. I don't know... somehow... for such a high price tag (18 euros)... i thought... maybe it would apply on the nails on its own?!

Don't get me wrong, it's still a very nice nail polish to own. If you can afford it, by all means get it. However, i feel this nail polish can be easily duped. Granted it would take you at least 3 or 4 nail polishes to achieve the same color and maybe you'll end up with a chunkier texture, Across The Universe remains dupable. I think Sephora makes flakies that are very similar, both in color and size.

It might also be that i own so many nail polishes that i'm completely jaded now? Or maybe the numerous rave reviews i have read over the years got my hopes up too high? I don't know!

What do you think?

LOTD: Lime Crime Red Velvet velvetine

Lime Crime - Red Velvet velvetine

I know it's been almost a year i haven't posted anything here. I won't go into details as of why i went M.I.A. for so long but can tell you i'm definitely happy to be back - and maybe some of you are too.

I placed my very first Lime Crime order a few days ago and had the pleasure to receive my package yesterday that included this - oh so famous - Red Velvet velvetine.

Velvetines are basically liquid lipsticks. They combine a very opaque finish with the comfort of a lipgloss. While they appear shiny upon application, they dry to a very sexy retro matte lipstick texture.

I was kind of scared upon opening its box as it looked quite bright in the tube - which isn't a problem per se, it just wasn't what i was expecting from this one . However, it dried to an amazing deep rich red.

I used a lip liner anyway as it's what i'm used to do but the doe foot applicator is precise enough to allow you to apply the product without lining your lips first.

It lasted a solid 8 hours on me (lunch and drinks included) before it started to fade gradually. Oh and i didn't experience any dryness but then again, my lips rarely get dry.

Obviously, you must have read everything there is to read about velvetines by now so without further ado, i'll leave you with a lip swatch that hopefully will convince those of you who don't already own it to go get it ASAP because, yes, it's that amazing!

For those of you who already own it, i hope you're enjoying it as much as i do!

Lime Crime - Red Velvet velvetine

NOTD: OPI Black Spotted

OPI Black Spotted over Lancome 012 "Pure Gold"

I didn’t hear much about OPI Black Spotted until Esther told me about it two weeks ago. She sent me a DM on Twitter that I only read at 6 AM and I had absolutely no clue the heck she was talking about. In my defense, I don’t even know my own name at 6 AM. But yeah, she was looking for it and told me that it was a shade exclusive to France.

I do like the idea that, for once, it was not something exclusive to the US!

So, of course, I had to get a bottle and test it out. I have to say I find OPI Black Spotted to be a bit disappointing.

OPI Black Spotted is part of the French release of the OPI Spider-Man collection, it pretty much acts like any OPI shatter top coat except that it will leave you with multiple rounded spots instead of a crackle pattern on your nail.

First of all, the texture is VERY liquid. Way too liquid.

Which means, you will end up with either too much or too little product on the brush. Also, its texture makes it quite difficult to control how much you apply on the nail.

You can see on the swatch, that I put too much on my index finger and middle finger so there are less gold spots. I wanted more gold spots to show up so I had to wipe my brush almost dry to have as little product on it as possible on both my ring finger and my pinky. Unfortunately, by doing that, I had to drag the brush, which thus left a few strokes.

Being so liquid, you will also find OPI Black Spotted to kind of smudge over your base color and you might as well experience some tip wear within 24 hours.

All in all, I find OPI Black Spotted to be quite interesting, still.

Do I think it’s a must-have, worth the $100 on ebay? Absolutely NOT. Well, no nailpolish is worth that price if you ask me.

Will I ever use it again? Mmmm, not sure, I mean it was fun to see what it was all about but seriously, nothing exciting here!

Are you still tempted by OPI Black Spotted?