Urban Decay Moondust - a sparkly obsession

I must admit when I first saw a visual of the new Urban Decay Moondust palette online my heart started going a hundred miles a minute. Sparkle - yass!

If you're like me you'll be happy to know that I personally think they rock.

Urban Decay Moondust palette contains all-new shades in their Moondust formulation, a silicone-based glitter shadow formula made up of synthetic mica, similar to sparkly shadow overcoats you find from brands like Tom Ford and Shu Uemura.

Urban Decay Moondust palette swatches

The typical way to wear these is to layer them over other shadows as a glittery topcoat for your lids. On their own, they can look like a sheer wash of sparkle, or when they are pale, like gleaming "wet" lids. You apply them with fingers - this is important - not a brush. Because the formula is made to cling to skin, not bristles.

That is - until you wet them.

This is orgasmic.

They look like foiled shadows or stuff you might find from Colourpop. Mucho intensity.

So I decided to apply them all damp for the most intense effect, because I want to do a look using nothing but Moondust shadows. I didn't want to layer them over other shadows or you wouldn't be able to see how they really look.

Can we say BLING?!

If you plan to use them in a more subtle way, just dab on with a finger. These shadows are formulated with silicone in the base, and designed to stick to skin, not brushes, when dry. So don’t complain about there being no pigmentation if you try to dust them on with a dry brush. Damp, these are incredible foiled shades with plenty of duochromatic magic. Every shade has a different color shift when it hits the light. Click each image to expand or right click and “open image in new tab” to see everything in higher res.

Do expect plenty of sparkly fallout though. More than if you rubbed these on with a finger, ironically. So do your foundation AFTER you do your eye makeup. I don't think it's a big deal though.

Shade Highlight: TKB Trading Luna Blue Pigment

I love pigments. And I've been trying and collecting them since before I started blogging. TKB Trading is my default place to go for pigments, and some of my faves in recent years have been the multidimensional synthetic fluorophylogopite formulas. 

Don't be scared off by the name. These are synthetic pigments which have a slight edge over natural mica in the sense that they have stronger shine, beautiful translucence, and can be shaped in a spherical way to give holographic effects in nail polishes and eye shadows. They're also used in lots of glosses. Natural mica pigments are unable to throw off so much shine and color when blended with other pigments. They often get muddy and dull. But not these synthetic ones.

Which makes them FANTASTIC for layering over other shadows or mixing into other loose shadows. And they are also great mixed into top coats and applied over other polishes. It's magic - try it.

It's hard to capture on camera; these look so much cooler in real life or when suspended in nail polish formulas. In real life, Luna Blue shifts from rosy-violet to blue to teal. I couldn't capture that on camera swatched on the skin, but I did manage to get a shot below where Luna Blue is throwing off 2 shades (blue and green) at least. You can probably see all 3 colors by looking at the sacket above; rose (center), green (bottom), and blue (top) tones.

This is what makes them different from natural duochrome/interference mica, which can only reflect 1 different color.

Synthetic Mica is more expensive than natural mica. It's $15 for a 1oz bag, compared to other pigments which can cost only a few dollars. But most people will typically only need to get a sample size sachet, which costs $2.95 and will last you ages and ages. Highly recommend you check it out if you love playing with fairy dust.

This type of sparkly mica will dust off your skin easily, so especially if you're layering it over other shadows I suggest dampening your finger in something like an alcohol-free toner, then dabbing it in a small amount of pigment, and gently rubbing and pressing it onto your lid. This helps the pigment to adhere instead of all falling off onto your cheeks, and also helps you get a more intense shine right where you need it.

In this look, I actually have a deep dark brown shadow on most of my lids and a bronze gold around the socket and inner corners.

I rubbed Luna Blue around just the center of my lids and along my lower lash line (I love the dewy sparkly gleam below the eyes), and left my inner and outer corners alone.

This gives a very unique, hard to describe effect, because you have a warm smoky eye, but depending on the angle of the light, your shadow will suddenly shift to blue, then back to bronze, then to teal, then sometimes violet.

Absolute magic.

There are 5 shades in the Moon Dust collection, and I love all of them. You can go on the site to search for individual colors but I recommend getting a whole set of sachets for just USD$12.

MAC Le Disko Collection Swatches and First Impressions

MAC’s Le Disko Collection is about to hit Singapore (3 July at all counters except Isetan Scotts), and I hear Robinsons MAC Counters will launch these a week early - so today, 25 June - if you can't wait until next week. I will say right now that if you love color and sparkle, you will LOVE this ultra sparkly, uber-glam collection.

Ironically, I’ve never been the biggest fan of Dazzleglasses. I always felt they look pretty in the tube, but most of the softer shades all look the same once on the lips. The 5 shades in the Le Disko collection are pretty, but they’re pretty standard-issue, and my picks would probably be:

• Rollargirl - (yes it’s spelt like that) taupe-beige with pink sparkles 
• Cherry Popping - magenta with violet sparkles

I can imagine a lot of people will love Sugarrimmed though. It's a can't-go-wrong topper for nude and pale lipsticks.

The 2 Superslick Liquid Liners in a kitschy retro silver and gold are also fun as well. 

But where I feel they’ve knocked it out of the park is with the 12 Dazzle Shadows. 

 Texture

I was half expecting these sparkly shadows to be like the Veluxe Pearlfusion Shadows (which have a tendency to be inconsistent in pigmentation, gritty to the touch, and fall all over your face), but once I swatched these I was sold.

These are creamy smooth, intense, buildable, and highly pigmented (except for Last Dance which has a slightly more crumbly texture than the rest). And most of them are duochrome and multidimensional. The sparkles often come in contrasting tones with the base colors.

Which means you can apply a wash of a single shade all over your lids and it will look like you put in a lot more effort than you did.

Lasting Power

NARS Christopher Kane Collection

Here's a quick overview of and first impressions of some products from the NARS x Christopher Kane collection, which launches in Singapore in June. 

First off, the packaging is gorgeous, with the NARS logo in metallic fuchsia.

And the collection is filled with sparkly colors that sort of remind me of Northern Lights. Glowy duochrome violets and greens, beiges and corals. All these colors might look really intense in the packaging, but are designed to just give you a veil of translucnet color and texture. 

Here are the items that I received for review and the swatches for your reference.

I do have to point out that I like the Parallel Universe duo a lot more than the mono shadow, Outer Limits, which was a bit of a disappointment for me.

In the pan, it looks like it would be almost a creamy, intense sparkle shade, but it really has a dry, coarse texture that will just dust right off your skin. You can use it on top of other shadows as an over-coat but I find the best overcoats have silicone binders in them to make them adhere on top of other dry shadows. This one is just dry, so it does not want to stay on top of other powders. My recommendation is to apply it damp, like below, as that gives you more of a sheen and you can better control where the shimmer goes. Otherwise, it all just ends up on your cheeks after an hour.

Another item that was somewhat disappointing was the Multiple in Violet Atom. This is a lavender shade that looks SO beautiful in the tube, and I love the formulation of the newer Multiples (more silky, less sticky and greasy than the older versions). But it's so subtle that it almost can't be seen once it's blended into the skin.

Below, it looks visible, but that's straight from the tube, before blending out. Once you rub out the edges, it kinda melds into your skin. Which is good if you like an ultra-subtle look. But then it's so subtle that you won't be able to see ANY of that lavender-green duochrome color. You just get a very, very soft glow. It's still pretty of course. But I kinda feel that for the price, it should not look that subtle.

But overall, you can see from my swatches that everything is very ethereal and soft. These products work best layered lightly over other products and bases.

In my look below, I applied a tiny layer of grey cream shadow to the outer corners of the eyes and used Parallel Universe on top of it, with the beige-green over the grey, and the lavender on the inner half of the lids. On the cheeks and down my nose, I have the Multiple in Violet Atom (it's barely visible), as well as Adoration from the Dual Intensity blush range, which I - adore.
On the lips I have Nebulous lipgloss.

I did have to apply a grey cream base to portions of my lid and then apply the shadows on top of it for the shading and definition I want. Like a lot of the NARS duos, there is no "definer/highlight" shade. Which isn't a problem for me because I tend to treat all the shades in my duos and palettes as individual shadows that I can mix and match with other stuff, not necessarily with the other colors in the same palette. But I know some of you hate that and want palettes and duos to be a "complete" look.

What do you think of the products? Love em or leave em?

Favorites: Tom Ford Eye Color Quad 01 Golden Mink

Tom Ford Eye Color Quad 01 Golden Mink

I know all about obsessions with Tom Ford Eye Color Quads. After all, I own 8 of them.

As far as favorites go, I definitely have to go with the neutrals. They're a big investment up-front but they last forever cos you get 10g of product, and the shades are silky smooth, high-quality and flattering even if you have mature skin.

Out of the quads I have, the most-used one of 2014 has got to be 01 Golden Mink. Oddly enough, it's not actually my favorite neutral TF palette. I think Cocoa Mirage has a better balance of dark to light shades, and Cognac Sable has a more interesting and glamorous mix of smoky colors.

But for some odd reason, Golden Mink is still the one I reach for most often. 

Tom Ford 01 Golden Mink swatches

Maybe it's the versatility. You get 2 very wearable and flattering iridescent brown-tones; one a taupe bronze, the other a rich cocoa. These 2 shades are my regular whisk-on-and-go daily colors. 

At the same time, there are 2 sparkle shades. Now if you've never tried Tom Ford's glitter shadows, you'll be interested to know these are semi-cream textures. The ultra-fine glittery mica particles are suspended in a translucent silicone base, so they go on feeling dry, but they adhere and smooth on like cream shadows. 

My only criticism is that the 2 sparkle shades look very similar once applied on the lids and blended with the other shadows (both vaguely pale beige-gold sparkles), and they probably only needed 1 in there, not 2. Having a 3rd satin shadow there - like a champagne highlight color - would have given a wider range of look possibilities.

But still, this is a nice palette to have, and by far the one I've gotten the most compliments on whenever I've worn it out or shared looks on Instagram, etc.

My favorite way of applying it is to blend the taupe-bronze on the inner half of lids, the deeper chocolate shade on the outer half of lids. This gives a subtle smoky neutral eye which is pearlescent but not overly metallic. 

Then to finish off, I like to apply a concentrated strip of one of the sparkle shades down the center of the lid, and just around the tear-duct area of the inner corners, to create a subtle gleaming "wet" look.

Tom Ford 01 Golden Mink on lids, Anna Sui Length & Separation Mascara 001

Most times I'll jazz it up further with dark brown liner, but in most cases, this is a very easy and grown-up way to wear glitter. And I DO wear it to work in a conservative environment.