Nars Isolde - An everyday eyeshadow duo

I'm going to honest, I hate Wednesdays. But to make up for it, I get to drink a beer and make a beauty recommendation.

Ladies (and Gents), today, I'm here to tell you about Isolde the eyeshadow duo from Nars. Not Isolde from Tristan and Isolde, the incredibly depressing love story.

Nars Isolde is beautiful duo of gold and copper. These two colors are known to be very flattering for blue eyes, but guess what? They are amazing on Olive skin too (have Olive skin and blue eyes? You lucky bitch.)  My favorite part about these two colors is that they can be used together or alone. Use one of them as a wash and it's flattering. Wear the one on the left on the lid and the one of the right in crease and you have a more put together look. Want to make this night time friendly or add some depth to the look? Pop a chocolate color like MAC Swiss Chocolate or Folie in the outer corner and you have a sexy eye look.

I'm not going to mince words, I love me some gold eye looks. I feel like they're an understated way to make brown eyes pop and always look effortlessly sexy on Olive skin tones no matter the eye color. If you want to give an eye look like this a try, this is a good starting point. The colors are nicely pigmented (though probably a little light for anyone above NC40), a dream to apply and last a good 8-10 hours.

So, what do you say gorgeous, would you try something similar to this?

MAC Motif - Highlighter?

Ladies. I found a cheat.

I think I put it this way because I'm a nerd, but I just feel like I'm gaming the system somehow!

I own MAC Motif, generally I use it as a highlight for my brow bone. It's such a beautiful almost duo-chrome color. MAC describes it as a gold/peach with pink pearl. That's a fairly accurate description, the pink pearl is the key here. If you look at Motif in the pan depending on the lighting it can look gold or it can look pink. In better lighting you can really see the pearl and it's really beautiful.

This brings me to my cheat. One day I thought, why not use Motif on my cheeks as a highlighter? I did it over Warm Soul and the result was remarkable! The shadow didn't look weird or out of place, in fact it looked amazing! The pink pearl really melded well with my blush and brought this truly amazing highlight into my cheeks.

I firmly believe this will come down to preference, however, I very much encourage Olive skinned Divas to try this trick. You can make it toned down and natural or super packed on and dramatic!

Unfortunately, the pictures just cannot capture the exact beauty of Motif on the skin. However, I really recommend people try it out. It works wonderfully as an eyeshadow, is buttery and a dream to put on. For those reasons, I believe it lends itself so easily to being used as a highlighter on the cheeks! Motif does not look out of place on the eye nor on the cheeks and can be quite a little multi-tasker! Talk about saving some cash, at $11.50 USD for a pan it's a pretty great option.

Smashbox Smokebox

Smashbox decided to release a sister for the Fall Softbox, a Smokebox for a smokey eye look. I've never owned a palette dedicated just to a smokey eye, though I probably should have a long time ago, it really takes the guesswork out.

As with the previous two palettes I reviewed by Smashbox this one is full proof and really makes it easy to get beautiful eye looks.  It also comes with two eye looks you can try out in case you're overwhelmed or uninspired.

Bliss: Looks a lot like Vanilla from the previous palettes but this one is pearlescent.
Putty: A dark brown with gold microshimmer.
Blacktop: Black with silver glitter.
Mist: A beige-taupe leaning more towards beige.
Royal: A dark purple, looks almost brown, matte.
Nocturnal: Dark navy with blue glitter.

So, there is only one matte shade in the palette, but this palette creates some really fun smokey eye looks. Definitely not boring by any means. The only down side is that Blacktop and Nocturnal have glitter in them which looks wonderful but can mean some minor fall out. With primer for me the fall out was hardly something to complain about but it is there, so I want to mention it.

Other than that I worried the colors were too dark for me to pull off comfortably or too cool for my olive skin. That was not the case the colors were wonderful and produced very beautiful looks. They are, however, very pigmented so use a light hand or you'll look like you have a shiner.

Smashbox Softbox Fall 2011

I bought Smashbox's Softbox for Summer and really loved how it was so easy to use. I feel that many shades were probably a little too soft for my NC35 skin, but I still enjoyed it, especially the liners. Summer isn't meant to be about heavy eye make up, so their Summer Softbox made a lot of sense.

When I saw that they had released a Softbox for Fall I almost passed it by chalking it up to be another palette with shades too light for me. However, when I saw it on their Smashbox site I realized this was definitely a Fall palette and that it was definitely not going to be lacking in pigment.

Fizz: A pearlescent beige, very pretty.
Pebble: A matte brown almost grey.
Minx: A pearlescent medium brown.
Vanilla: Vanilla, matte.
Ignite: A beautiful coral with a yellow pearlescence.
Sienna: A dark brown with gold pearlescence.

The palette even comes with 2 eye looks you can try if you're not sure about how to use the colors. Just like with the brown eyes palette from yesterday I have no complaints about this palette. The colors are gorgeous, truly pair very well together, are pigmented and looked beautiful on my skin. If I had to pick nits I'd say that Pebble could be a little more pigmented, but it's not something that would make me want to return the palette.

As with the brown eyes palette, these are a joy to use, are brighter with primer and last me through the work day. I very much love these colors too, usually I'm not a huge fan of colors like Pebble but it works well with these shades!

Smashbox Photo Op Eye Enhancing Palette - Brown Eyes

So I bought a new palette from Smashbox. It's part of their Girls on Film line and it's specifically tailored to brown eyes. Hey! I have brown eyes!

So, I'll start with the colors:

Marble: A very pretty taupe with a hint of pearlescence.

Wine: A reddish brown with a hint of golden sparkle.

Bark: A dark brown with a hint of golden sparkle.

Vanilla: Exactly like it sounds, looks like vanilla ice cream. Matte.

Brazilian Bronze: A bronze with a hint of sparkle.

Navy: A matte dark navy.

Direction on how to get 2 looks!

These shadows are gorgeous. They really do make brown eyes pop! The shadows themselves are a dream, they blend well, are nicely pigmented and the best is they feel like butter but the shimmery ones don't have fall out! All of my swatches above are without primer but with primer they're even better and last without creasing for my whole work day.

I own a lot of eyeshadows, but I truly love small palettes like these because they are pretty much full proof. You can create a lot of eye looks with the palette but can also just connect the dots if you're lazy or a novice. I sometimes get overwhelmed by large palettes and don't know what to pair together, with this it's like idiot proof makeup for a sleepy Liz in the morning.

This is available at Sephora.

Urban Decay - 15th Anniversary Palette

I'll admit it, I am a sucker for a palette of eyeshadows. I flock to it like a fat kid to cake, so when I found out that Urban Decay was coming out with another palette I knew I had to have it. Then I was concerned I'd just end up with eyeshadows I already had, so Urban Decay upped the ante by making these 15 NEW shadows! The day my Macy's got it the Urban Decay counter girl called me and I got there 20 minutes later, she definitely made fun of me for practically teleporting there.

All I have to say, is ZOMG PRETTY. Everything about this palette is gorgeous including the amazing new colors. I feel like it's a wonderful balance between fun and neutral and only one of these colors was a glitter bomb, surprise! Another surprise? The entire under side of the lid is a mirror, +1 to Urban Decay again.

I have got to say that part of me worried that a lot of these would straight up disappear on my skin, but only Tainted seemed like I'd need to pile it on in order to make it more visible. Did you spot the glitterbomb shadow? That's right! Midnight Rodeo, but even with the glitter chunks it's a beautiful color. The clincher for this palette is that each of these are full size shadows, all for $55. Not bad at all. Overall I'm so happy I sprang for this palette. Part of me wonders if I should snag a second one as a backup? No, no, down Liz.

So, will you be springing for it? I've heard mixed reviews from most people on whether they'd like it, but I can say for sure that for people with Olive skin this isn't going to be a regretted purchase based on color payoff.