Bare Escentuals Ready 2.0 Eyeshadow Duo "The Epiphany" - Review

I really like Bare Escentuals as a brand, as I've previously noted. When I heard they were going to start releasing pressed eyeshadows, I was beyond excited. I love the concept of loose shadows, but I find them more prone to fall out, and the lasting power seems to vary wildly between shades with some brands. During Sephora's Friends & Family sale last year, I decided to pick up one of the duos, called "The Epiphany."

From Bare Escentuals:

bareMinerals READYTM Eyeshadow provides exceptionally vivid, long-wearing color in an ultra smooth, silky texture for effortless application and seamless blendability with two complementary shades. Powered by our proprietary SeaNutritive MineralTM Complex along with powerful antioxidants, cold-pressed borage oil, caffeine and cucumber-ingredients known to deliver anti-aging benefits including reduced look of puffiness and antioxidant protection for a softer, smoother, revitalized eye area. It looks like a powder but feels like a cream and delivers a beautifully smooth application of vivid, long-wearing color.

I have to question how long, or how often, you would need to wear an eyeshadow for any sort of skin care benefits to be visible, but I suppose it's a nice touch - I mean, it's the thought that counts, right? That aside, these shadows are creamy to the touch, and color selection is pretty good.

For $20 (an outstanding price), you get two eyeshadows (complete with names), in a rounded square palette. The palettes are made from that same soft to the touch rubber that NARS uses. A mirror is provided in the lid, and a sponge applicator is included. Each duo contains 0.1 oz of shadow, 0.05 oz of each shade.

The Epiphany includes Foreshadow, a matte "brown truffle" shade, and A-Ha!, a shimmery "brown sugar." You could also call them a matte medium/dark brown and a shimmery taupe, if you wanted to. Both shades lean warm, and swatch beautifully.  A-Ha! applies and blends great, too, however Foreshadow doesn't apply great. It can appear chalky and less pigmented than it would appear. It's not without it's uses, though. I love using it to deepen other brown tones. It seems to apply much better over another shadow, perhaps because they give it some "slip."

The shadows last all day over my normal primer system (UDPP + color base of some kind). I have not noticed any morphing, fading or creasing on my oily lids.

Overall, I really like these. Enough that I've since bought a quad, one of the 8-pan palettes from their holiday 2011 collection, and picked up one from QVC in their Today's Special Value from several months ago. This is a particularly dependable duo, because it's a great pair of neutrals at an amazing price.

Bare Escentuals Round the Clock Waterproof Eyeliner - Review

I am truly a sucker for Bare Escentuals on QVC. It's like they know I have money, and they want me to give it to them, so they bring out only stuff that I would love, like brown sparkly eyeliners. And, despite my efforts to remind myself how much brown eyeliner I have, and how infrequently I use Bare Escentuals' products, my debit card comes out and I end up buying whatever the Today's Special Value is (which reminds me - they have one coming up soon! End of March, I think).

I was drawn to this liner because it promised to rival UD's 24/7 eyeliners, which are fabulous (except the color selection is somewhat weak, in my opinion). They claim to be long wearing, waterproof, creamy, and pigmented.

The color I ended up with is called 10 PM. It's a sparkly dark brown, and looks beautiful when swatched. The pencil barrel is black, with the product information printed in a soft silver tone. The end of the pencil is color coded for the eyeliner's color, much like MAC's Powerpoint pencils. The barrel is made of the same soft-ish plastic as Powerpoints and the 24/7 liners.

The color and formula of this liner is great, sort of. When first applied, it's beautiful - a deep, rich brown with shimmer. After a regular day of wear, though, the color morphed. Badly. It became a weird, antique green on my lids. This can mean one of two things: either the liner faded, or reacted with the oil on my lids or my eyeshadow/eyeshadow base. Either way, it doesn't bode well for a long wearing liner that is supposed to last "round the clock."

I wanted to like this liner, because it's so pretty, but if it can't last all day like other brands (Maybelline, MAC, UD, etc), then what's the point? I can't recommend this liner at all, based on my experience.

Haul!

I've been neglecting this blog because I've been working overtime for the last, oh, 2 months or so. It's been tiring, but, now that those overtime paychecks have been rolling in... I've been taking advantage of my free money!

The stuff pictured above is all from QVC. It's what's left from the last Tarte TSV kits I received (including the 8th Wonder set [which had the Amazonian Clay foundation], and the Glow Your Way to Gorgeous set [which had the Maracuja Oil Concealer]). I kept only a few pieces, opting to sell off the pieces I wouldn't use. I kept the bronze Amazonian clay eyeliner, the Shimmering Moss Amazonian Clay Waterproof eyeshadow, the quad (which will make a great neutral eye look!), and the make up bag from the Glow Your Way to Gorgeous set. The rest sold on eBay last week, and I was able to clear enough to pay for two kits. I also picked up the next Bare Escentuals TSV (which will be promoted on 11/18/2011), because it included one of their Ready 2.0 eyeshadow duos, and their Round the Clock eye liner pencils. I'll do a review of these pieces later.

These items came from Macy's and Nordstrom. I needed a new foundation, because I was finding the Tarte foundation to be a little on the dark side (apparently, I had picked up a touch of color over the summer - who knew?). I decided to get two (I can't live with just one!), so from Macy's, I picked Chanel's Perfection Lumiere in the shade 12 Beige Rosee (which is an awesome match,) and because I'm a weak person, I also got the Illusion d'Ombre in Illusoire. From Nordstrom, I picked up Matchmaster in 1.0, and then preordered (and subsequently retrieved) a few items from Glitter & Ice, the holiday collection. I decided on the a Dazzleglass in Dressed to Dazzle, the lighter of the two nudes. I also got the beauty powder in Snowglobe, the Mineralized Eyeshadow in Snow Season, and a paint pot in Morning Frost.

I swatched everything from Glitter & Ice, and honestly, nothing else grabbed me. I had 2 of the Dazzleglasses already (and really didn't like She-Zam! at all - it was way to cool-toned for me). The other two paint pots were super thick-almost-sticky in texture, a lot like Blackground. The other beauty powder didn't wow me at all, and Snow Season was the only MES that I honestly loved. The others were not pigmented, or super cool-toned (which makes sense - who's hear of warm ice?). I can't buy any more lipsticks, since I never wear them, and hate Technikohl liners - they fade almost immediately, or, smudge themselves away. I'm super happy with what I got from Glitter & Ice, though!

Buxom Stay-There Eye Shadow - Review

I'll admit that Leslie Blodgett is a marketing genius. I never, ever, thought I'd buy anything from Bare Escentuals, or the Buxom line, but whenever I catch Bare Escentuals on QVC, my debit card is invariably removed from my wallet, and money is removed from my bank account. I really can't say I've been disappointed in my BE purchase, or those from any of the spin-offs, like Buxom, and I love cream eyeshadows as color bases, so I was pretty pleased with myself when I set up a Makeup Alley swap for two of the Buxom Stay-There shadows.

The claims for these shadows, according to Sephora:

This bounc-i-licious new eye color offers the ultimate experience with an unexpectedly plush, lightweight texture and vivid color. It leaps and bounds beyond what you've come to expect from eye color and better, yet, it's even waterproof. Named after our loyal four-legged friends, these stay-put shades will be your faithful new beauty companions as they comfort and care for your pretty peepers. The mineral-infused, paraben-free formula pampers delicate skin with soothing Aloe extract and Vitamin E—all with a non-greasy, long-wearing finish. Touch it. Pet it. Love it. Only at Sephora.

These are packaged in small glass jars with screw-on lids. For your $17, you get 0.12 oz of product, when compare to MAC Paint Pots ($16.50 for 0.17), they're not the best deal in the world.

I was really surprised by the texture of these shadows. As indicated in the claims, they are, in fact, not greasy at all. They're moussey, and I found it's very, very easy to get too much product on my finger when trying to apply them. Seriously, it's like your touching a loose shadow or something when touching the surface of the shadow. So weird. I've noticed you don't need much, either, with each application.

The girl I was swapping with had several up for swap, and I selected two, Mutt and Schnauzer. Mutt is described on Sephora as a "bronzed taupe," and Schnauzer is a "vivid violet plum." Both descriptions, I think, are inaccurate. Mutt appears as a "my lid but more shimmery" color, and Schnauzer is a weakly-pigmented purple. Of the two, I really like Mutt, and don't really care for the color of Schnauzer at all (it looks very, very nice in the jar, though).

Surprisingly, these make fabulous bases for powder shadows. Honest. When applied over a base of UDPP, and set with just about any shadow, these puppies (ha!) lasted all day without creasing or fading. As with most cream-type shadows, you don't need much. I've found that a thin layer works best, and could never build Schnauzer enough without major creasing. Mutt appeared on my lids just fine, though. Without being set, however, these did tend to crease on me, but every other cream shadow I've ever tried does, so I can't blame this product.

Do I like these, given how I use them? Yep. Would I go buy them on my own? Maybe. I sort of prefer pencil-type shadows, like the Urban Decay 24/7 pencils, but the Stay-There shadows aren't bad. I'd be curious to see if the other colors tend to be like Mutt (pigmented) or like Schnauzer (not pigmented).