Motives Cosmetics by Loren Ridinger

A couple of weeks back, I was contacted by one of my followers on my Make-Up Junkie Facebook Page to see if I wanted to become a distributor of Motives Cosmetics.  I did a bit of research on the company and ordered a few of their products prior to making any decisions.  Below is a review of the products that I ordered.

First up - Boxed Beauty Palette - $29.95.  This palette came with 6 eye shadows, one blush, one bronzer/highlight color and two little brushes. I did not care for either of the brushes and would never use them.  Five of the shadows were shimmer and one was a glittery shadow (the brown one).  Only two had what I felt to be decent color pigmentation (the brown and the grey).  The others were all "okay" but had to really be built and built and layered to get any sort of color payoff.  I am more of a bright and colorful person so I felt that this was not a good palette for me.  I did, however, really like the bronzer/highlight shade quite a lot.  If you enjoy neutral shadows, you probably would like this quite a lot.

Next up - Captivating Coral Lipstick - $14.95.  This was my favorite item out of the whole haul.  The color payoff was pretty good and it was very moisturizing on my lips.  The lasting power was pretty good too.

Next up - Tender Beige Liquid to Powder Foundation - $24.95.  This foundation I was really super excited to try!  It has primer, moisturizer and SPF 15 in it so that sounded amazing!  I found that this foundation would have to be layered on to get full coverage. I think I probably would have liked this much more if the coverage wasn't so sheer.  I found that I get better coverage from my BB cream.

Midnight Blue Hi Def Mascara - $16.95.  I found the formula to be quite thick and tended to clump up on my lashes.  The wand was very flimsy and flexible, another thing that I disliked about the mascara. 

And now swatches - this first swatch is the top row of the palette - the peach shadow, the pink one and the brown.  The white and pink really had to be layered to get it to show up.  The brown swatched nicely.

This is the coral lipstick in Captivating Coral. 

The next two swatches is the second row of the palette - the white, grey, and purple shadows are on the bottom of the swatch.  The top of the swatch is the golden highlight/bronzer and next to that (I know it is hard to see) is the blush.

This is the look that I put together using all of these products.  The shadows used were the pink (lid), grey (crease) and white (brow highlight).  I used both the blush and the bronzer/highlighter as well as the mascara and lipstick.

I did decide that becoming a promoter with Motives is not in my future.... at least not right now.

Chaos Cosmetics Haul - 02/19/2013

I got my very first order with Chaos Cosmetics (their Facebook page) and I am very happy with my order.  Super fast order processing and shipping.  I ordered on Thursday and I had my order on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday too!).  Of course it didn't have to ship cross country in my case - they're in Arizona and I'm in Oregon.

I ordered 8 full sized jars (all shown below).  In my order I received all 8 jars as ordered (and filled plump full just as advertised!) as well as 7 sample baggies (very generous sized too) and one lip gloss sample in Mind = Blown).  I did not swatch the samples (except two of them) but I am anxious to try the gloss for sure.  Chaos Cosmetics makes some pretty amazing color shifting pigments and I was pleased with the shifting that I was able to capture.  It was very hard to capture with my still camera but I will try hard to do so with my video camera at my earliest opportunity and update my blog.

Now to the pictures and swatches!

All of these pigments are amazingly pigmented and gorgeous.  Applying them wet definitely makes them more vibrant and pigmented and to capture intense color shifting, you must apply them wet.  I did catch some shifting applying them dry or over top of NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk but it was not anywhere near as intense as when wet. 

And now.... to the swatch candy!!  All of the swatches were done as follows:  Top - BFTE's Liquid Luster, middle - bare skin, bottom - NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk.  Check out Courtesan!  Ahhh, I am in LOVE!!

Check out that color shifting on Mystique in particular!  I am very anxious to try out all of these colors!!

You can see some shifting but it is so very hard to pick up on the camera.  This is a very stunning color applied wet and I am so very anxious to use it!

Calypso and Alter Ego were the two samples that I just had to swatch.  These were two colors that I wished I had ordered so I was so delighted to find the very generous sample baggies in my order - definitely enough to use many times.  Calypso would be an amazing eyeliner.  These swatches were done using BFTE's Liquid Luster as a base.

All in all, I am very happy with the pigments I ordered and the samples.  I did notice that most of them rinsed off very easily without even using soap.  The green ones not as easily and over top of the NYX JEP they definitely stayed put a bit more.  I'm sure with the use of an eyeshadow primer they will stay put much easier. I will follow up on that after I've actually used them and then washed my face.  I'll update in a future blog post or video post on my YouTube channel.

You can also find me on Facebook

Sedona Lace Haul - 02/16/2013

Ever since IMATS LA, I have seen several bloggers, including Angie of Goldiestarling (whose review sold me on making this brush purchase) review Midnight Lace brush sets from Sedona Lace.  Over Valentines Day week, Sedona Lace had a sale on their palettes so I figured this was a good time to order as I needed some concealer and blushes.  I ordered the 10 Color Camouflage concealer Palette, the 15 Ultra Shimmer Eyeshadow Palette, the 10 Blush Palette, the Midnight Lace Synthetic Face Brush set and the 7 piece Midnight Lace Synthetic Eye Brush set.

I didn't do any swatches and the pictures of the individual brushes didn't come out very well but I do plan on doing a video review for my YouTube channel later today.  Overall first impression of all 3 palettes and the brushes is complete & utter satisfaction.  I've done a few finger swatches of the shadows and blushes and I really like them a lot.  I haven't used the brushes yet but they are super duper soft and I am really looking forward to using them today!

First up, the brushes!  I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to trying these.  I don't have any real good face brushes and my eye brushes are hit & miss.  This is a great collection.

These are the eye brushes and there are 7 of them in the set.  #618 - Angled Flat; #217 - Round Dome; # 847 - Small Round Flat; #224 - Small Tapered; #872 - Small Flat Top (I'm looking forward to using this one for concealer!); #773 - Small Angle; #312 - Small Round.  The brochure says the #312 is your best friend when it comes to buffing out makeup.  The rounded edges erase all streaks & lines helping you achieve professional results.  All of the Sedona Lace Midnight Lace brushes are synthetic, making them great for both cream and powder products.

Next up - The Face Brushes!  What you get in the face brush collection are a super soft Kabuki brush, Round Top Powder Brush, Flat Top Powder Brush, and an Angle Top Powder Brush.  Of these, I think the one I'm most excited to try is the flat top brush for stippling on my foundation and concealers.

And now the palettes! 

First up is the Ultra Shimmer Eyeshadow Palette.  There are 15 shimmer shadows in this palette and they are all amazingly shimmery and pigmented.

Next is the blush palette.  This palette gives you a wide variety of color choices from just a subtle wash of color to bright bold colors that would be great for contouring.

... and last but not least is the concealer palette.  There are 10 concealers in this palette and you can mix them to create the perfect shade for you!  I think that's the best thing about this palette is you can mix them to find the perfect shade for your skin tone.  Would be great for the professional also who needs to custom mix for a variety of skin tones of their clients.

They also threw in this freebie for my order too.  Four cute eye shadows to try.  

Lumikki Haul #2 - February 1, 2013

I received my second order of Lumikki Cosmetics a couple of days ago and I really like everything I got.  Their pigments are reasonably priced and are just stunning.  Below are some swatches and a look I did today using 5 of the colors from this haul.

I hope you enjoy!

The packaging is super cute - wrapped up in pink tissue paper with their cute logo sticker.  The shadows came packaged in bubble wrap underneath the pink tissue paper and shipped in a padded envelope.  Everything arrived safely!

This is the look I created today. I used Puff on the lid, Evil Queen in the crease, Androgyny between the crease and brow highlight, Princess as brow highlight and inner corner highlight, and Blue Grenade on the lower lashline over top of Makeup Forever's Aquaeyes pencil in 7L.  This is one of my favorite purple looks ever!

I highly recommend Lumikki Cosmetics.  They have an Etsy storefront and customer service is exceptional!  If you need to communicate with Sule, message her through Etsy - she's very prompt to reply back.  First time customers also receive 15% off first orders!  Sule just finished putting a bunch of new pigments up and she also sells fingernail polish. I've not tried any of her polishes yet but I will soon!