NYX IN YOUR ELEMENT 'FIRE' AND 'METAL' PALETTES

Happy Monday! I am here to share some photos and swatches of NYX's new In Your Element palettes in Fire and Metal. This post will be short and sweet.. here is the outside of the packaging:

and the two palettes side-by-side (SWOON)

Here is Metal post-swatch...

The Metal palette is not good. There are a few shades that are and I was dying over the shade second from the right but overall these guys are glittery, flaky and seal after just one finger pass. No good. This puppy went back to Ulta!

HOWEVER

The Fire palette is sooooooo gooooooooooooooooood. If you're going to get some of these palettes, the Fire palette needs to be one. The first yellow shimmer (far right) is a bit lacking and the dark shade four from the left isn't as exciting as I expected it would be but the rest are buttery and beautiful.

I'm also interested in the Earth palette but it seemed too similar to Fire to make sense enough for me to purchase it. I bought these two palettes when Ulta was having a 30% off NYX sale so the price tags weren't too out of bounds for my wallet!

KYLIE COSMETICS ROYAL PEACH PALETTE + 2 LOOKS

Well, well, well…

Here we go again with another Kylie product. That doesn't suck. I saw the promo pictures for this product and felt like I could really do some fun things with this palette and it is comprised of shades that I don't feel like I already own (for the most part...). It was a recipe for success! I managed to snag this last week whilst in the middle of a manicure. It's okay. My nail technician knows of Kylie and her cosmetic brand and was just as excited as I was that I was able to purchase it.

This is the Royal Peach palette. It was $45 and has 12 shades in it. This palette also comes with a very decent blending brush.

I love the elongated layout of this palette and the mega-mirror. But the best part? The shadows are magnetized loosely in the palette meaning they can easily come out and be put into a Z Palette. My palette isn't even put together anymore!

There are lots of reddish peach shades in the Royal Peach palette. Thankfully, there are also some solid transition shades. 'Sorbet' is a pale orange, very similar to Makeup Geek's 'Peach Smoothie' and 'Sandy' is a warm mid-toned tan very similar to Urban Decay's 'Beware'. The poppy shades in this palette are 'Royal' a matte, bright blue, 'Mojito', a metallic yellow-green and 'North Star' which is a metallic lilac that is very close to Anastasia Beverly Hill's 'Macaroon'. There's enough excitement in this shade range to create many different looks without getting bored.

Here are two looks that I've created with (almost) all of the shades in the Royal Peach Palette.

Sorbet and Sandy thru the crease with Mojito on the inner/lid -- Duke and Crush on the lower lash line blended out with Cinnamon

'Sorbet' and 'Crush' on the crease and outer third, 'Seashell' on the center with 'Queen Bee' on the inner third -- 'Duchess' on the lower lashline and winged on the upper lash // had to pair this look with the @makeupforeverofficial Starlit Powder in '02' on the inner corner 

In all, I am very pleased with this! Kylie's products are becoming very trustworthy at this point and I can't wait to see what sector of makeup she journeys into next.

MY (COMPLETED) Z PALETTE

I am so excited to share with you all my very first (completed) Z Palette!!!!

I recently had been getting tired of having so many palettes around and having to choose which was the "most important" when traveling and such. I decided to depot and combine my shadows into my Large Z Palette so I could have everything together.

Unfortunately, I own many Urban Decay shadows. I have learned the hard way that UD shadows aren't designed for depotting and placing into a separate palette. I had a UD-specific palette but it only held six shadows. Most of them have survived thus far but my 'Blackout' lost a chunk out of it the day after I put it in and that was quiiiiiiiite messy.. Urban Decay customer service confirmed that I was not supposed to depot them (oops) but again, so far so good after that incident.

Because I am excessively Type A, I had a photoshop document going as I was filling in the palette to keep track of which shadows are which. You can find it underneath the below photo of the palette:

ABH = Anastasia Beverly Hills

UD = Urban Decay

I organized the shadows in a way that made the most sense to me. Cooler Earth tones on the top, warm sunny shades under that followed by the reds, purples and pinks and lastly the neutrals.

Two of my shadows are Makeup Geek pigments that I put into an eyeshadow pan because I was never, ever, ever, EVER going to use them as a pigment. Pigments are far too messy and difficult to work with but since putting them in my palette, I have used the (now pressed) pigments multiple times.

My favorite shadows in my collection are Makeup Geek 'Chickadee', Makeup Geek 'Magic Act', Urban Decay 'Blackout' and Urban Decay 'Beware'. Not interestingly, they're all warm shades. I've had to force myself to buy more cool-toned shadows in an effort to broaden my eyeshadow horizons.

In another no-brainer, I am the most pleased with all of my Makeup Geek shadows. They have amazing foiled shades and neutrals that blend beautifully.

Below are on-arm swatches that have no primer underneath or anything. Just my bare arm and my beautiful shadows!!!!

Since this post, I have gotten another Z Palette and am separating my shadows by warm and cool tones. Clearly, my cool toned palette is a bit lacking at the moment. Let me know what your recommendations are!

NYX ULTIMATE BRIGHTS PALETTE

Here are some quick swatches of the new NYX Ultimate Palette in 'Brights'!