Notoriously Morbid May 2015 Vanishing Cabinet - The Price of Magic Swatches

After a one month break, Notoriously Morbid's monthly Vanishing Cabinet is back!  The theme for this month is popular fairy tale show Once Upon a Time.  I do watch the show and enjoy it, but I like the other fairy tale show, Grimm, more.  I'm also not caught up with OUAT at all since I've missed the last half season due to coming home late from work :(  Anyway, the products this month are all inspired by the various villains featured on the show and has a blush sample from Dark Heart Designs as well.

Pictures taken in daylight and swatched over ELF Glitter Primer (top/left half) and ELF Essential Primer (bottom/right half)

Misthaven

Misthaven:  sage green with pink and silver sparkles.  I'm not exactly sure, but I think this one may be inspired by the Snow Queen?  If it is, I'm happy, because I really loved and sympathized for her character.  She got a bittersweet ending, but was relatively happy (for her) and I thought she was very beautiful *_*

Aromaleigh May 2015 Ephemera - Swatches and Review

Good morning, everyone!  This month's Ephemera box from Aromaleigh features the lovely and historical Anne Boleyn.  I was really excited for this theme because I did enjoy history when I was in school and I liked the subject of Anne Boleyn.  Funny enough, I never watched The Tudors because I didn't really like Natalie Dormer's portrayal of her and that dislike carried over to everything else she starred in...  Anyway, we received two mini eyeshadows, two face products, and an exclusive perfume from Black Violet.  What I love about Ephemera boxes are how cohesive the themes are, you'll notice the outer wrapping, packaging worms, and candies always match the theme.  This month we had orange mesh and white ribbon wrapping the box and inside features orange and ivory worms with blood orange flavored candies.

Such a good read, another reason I love the Ephemera boxes.

Pictures taken in daylight bulb and swatched over ELF Glitter Primer (top/left half) and ELF Essential Primer (bottom/right half)

Besotted

Besotted:  shimmery rosy copper 

Innocent + Twisted Alchemy April 2015 Subscription Swatches

I think I can finally say my procrastination knows no bounds... This is a swatch post of Innocent + Twisted Alchemy's April subscription box >_<  I don't know what happened last month, but I was just in some kind of blog rut even though I had all the pictures ready to go.  Funny enough, I+T's MAY subscription swatches were posted the day I received them (I loved that box guys...)  Anyway, the theme for April was magical girl series and Linda had a friend draw the label art.  It included two exclusive I+T shadows and a brand new face highlighter!

Pictures taken in daylight and swatched over ELF Glitter Primer (top/left half) and ELF Essential Primer (bottom/right half)

Green Grenade

Green Grenade: shimmery chartreuse with slight red sheen

Berry Bomb

Berry Bomb:  burgundy with gold, green, and red sparkles

Ipsy April 2015 - Beautifully Bohemian

Anddddd as usual, I'm super late on posting the Ipsy bag.  This one is actually from April and the theme was Beautifully Bohemian.  Let's just get right to it, shall we?

Olive Lips balm

Olive Lips balm:  I have actually tried this lip balm yet since I have so many already, but I'll give it a go, and if it doesn't work out then I'll give it to my friend.

Oval Concealer Brush

Oval Concealer Brush:  this is a brush from Crown Brush and I have yet to use it.  I've received a brush from them in the past and liked it a lot, so I'm sure this will be good as well.

JulieG Nail Color

Nail Color in 'Damsel':  this is a hot pink nail polish from JulieG.  It's not a color I would wear, so I think I'll have to pass this along.

The Balm Eyeshadow

The Balm Eyeshadow in 'Flirty':  plum brown with strong gold sheen.  This is a beautiful duochrome color that's hard to come across in mainstream cosmetics.  I also love the packaging and it's very cute, so I'm definitely keeping this one (sorry friends!).

Pink Carnation Blush

Pink Carnation Blush:  warm medium pink blush.  This is a blush sample from Pandora's Makeup box.  It was packaged really cutely and is super pigmented.  I liked using this blush as well because the sample pan was big enough to actually fit my blush brush into.

Flirty and Pink Carnation

- Jolie ♥

Lashes & Lingerie Project with Adore Me!

Good evening, everyone!  I'm excited to share a collaboration I did with NY based lingerie company, Adore Me!  I did a few makeup looks inspired by their newly released lingerie sets.  There are many beautiful sets on their website to choose from, and I ended up choosing the two darker ones, as that's more my personal style.  They recently launched a new Spring line as well, with very colorful and spring-y colored styles.  I was originally going to do one look per set, but the second one was classic enough to inspire two.

Spring Midnight

Spring Midnight look featuring: 

Notoriously Morbid Cosmetics' 7 Years Shattered (inner corner)

Notoriously Morbid Cosmetics' Annataz (lid)

Notoriously Morbid Cosmetics' Hallow's Eve (outer corner and crease)

Notoriously Morbid Cosmetics' Famine (outer corner)

ELF Cosmetics' Peachy Keen (blush)

Victoria's Secret Intensity (lipstick)

Lorraine

Lorraine look featuring:

Notoriously Morbid Cosmetics So Goes My Nation (lid)

Notoriously Morbid Cosmetics 5 by 5 (outer corner and crease) 

ELF Peachy Keen (blush)

Guerlain Garconne (lipstick)

Lorraine 2 look featuring:

Innocent and Twisted Alchemy's Face Hugger (inner corner)

Innocent + Twisted Alchemy's Ripley (lid)

Innocent + Twisted Alchemy's Drone (outer corner and crease)

Fyrinnae's Mystify (blush)

Limnit Lipsticks' Extraterrestrial (lipstick)

I had a lot of fun doing these looks and enjoyed my collaboration with Adore Me!  Please check out their collection of sexy lingerie and you'll definitely find a set that suits you.  The sets I chose were darker and classic because that's more my style, but there are plenty of sets for bright lovers as well.  Also, if you liked any of the makeup, feel free to check out the shops I linked.  Most of them are small independent companies with great products and customer service!

Until next time,

- Jolie ♥

Innocent + Twisted Alchemy May 2015 Subscription Swatches

I'm super excited to share these swatches and review of Innocent + Twisted Alchemy's May 2015 subscription box!  The theme for this month is Alien which is a movie starring Sigourney Weaver about an extraterrestrial infiltrating a spacecraft and killing the crew members (I'm not putting a spoiler alert mainly because it's such an old movie!).  I didn't watch this for the longest time because I'm not fond of watching super old movies because the quality is not that great.  However, while rewatching one of SNL's Lasercats skits, Sigourney Weaver guest starred as her character in Alien, Ripley, and I became interested.  I ended up marathoning the whole series (barring the horrible AvP spin-offs) and really enjoyed the franchise.

As soon as Linda snuck a peek of the theme two months ago, I've been excited for this box.  Alien was a makeup theme I never knew I wanted, but once proposed, I can't imagine being without it.  I don't really use neutrals much, but they are the only color family that make sense with the film, given how the atmosphere is very dark and gloomy.  

Anyway, my box shipped last week, and from previous experiences, it arrives at my house around two to three days later which is extremely fast.  However, this time took much longer and I ended up tracking it.  USPS decided to take my package for a week long joyride without updating at all.  I was really upset because I was so excited for this package and I'm pretty sure the post office knows that.  Anytime something I really want is on its way, they decide to delay it for some reason.  After numerous calls to USPS and them MISDELIVERING it, I received it today.  I immediately opened it up and did some swatches, then realized they would all look great together and slapped them on my eyes too!

I'm really sorry about my long rambles, I just really love this box.  Kudos, Linda!

Pictures taken over daylight bulb and swatched over ELF Glitter Primer (top/left half) and ELF Essential Primer (bottom/right half)

Look how freaking cool this label art is?!  This box is everything.

Face Hugger

Face Hugger:  shimmery beige with slight green sheen.  This shade, along with all the others in today's box is extremely pigmented and work amazingly over regular primer.

1Up Box APOCALYPSE vs Loot Crate PLAY February 2015

Welcome to the first installment of my 1Up Box vs Loot Crate series!  They're both monthly subscription boxes full of geeky goodies.  They both arrive around the same time so I love comparing the two.  I pay around the same price for both boxes (close to $19 each) but 1Up Box started out much cheaper initially, so their box is usually smaller and has cheaper items.  It doesn't affect me though because you definitely get a shirt in each 1Up Box and I love seeing which new designs they come up with!

Let's start with 1Up Box, shall we?  The theme was Apocalypse, so we have some zombie and war themed stuff.

1Up Box

Stress Relief Grenade

Stress Relief Grenade:  I was kinda disappointed in this because it seems like a rather cheap item, but I guess it matches the theme and would be useful sometimes.

Apocalypse Pin

Apocalypse Pin:  How cute is this?  I never had the luxury of playing video games growing up, but I can appreciate how cute Kirby is.  What do people do with all these pins, by the way?  I want to keep them, but I'm not sure where to put them all.

Corvus Cosmetics April 2015 CotM Swatch and Review

I have a very short swatch post for you all today because it's only one shadow.  It's a belated swatch of Corvus Cosmetics' April Color of the Month 'Kaelpie'.  Every time that awesome shop comes out with a new CotM, I always rush to buy it and then feel stupid because I only have one eyeshadow in my cart.  Thank god Noel doesn't judge me ;)  I also recently ordered the Heathers inspired collection which has yet to come, so stay tuned for swatches of that when it gets here!

Pictures taken in daylight and swatched over ELF Glitter Primer (top/left half) and ELF Essential Primer (bottom/right half)

Kaelpie

Kaelpie:  amazing dark brown with strong green sheen.  Sooooo, you guys must be tired of seeing similar colors on my blog but I really can't help it!  I absolutely LOVE green shadows and anything with a green shift.  Brown shadows with green shifts are usually what get me.  I will probably be comparing this to several others in my collection to see how similar they are (and maybe find minute differences to justify owning them all??)  Corvus' excellent eyeshadow formula definitely makes this shade a staple though, not to mention that creepy label art really makes it stand out.

- Jolie ♥

Fyrinnae Blush and Liquid Matte Lipstick Swatches

Welcome back, everyone!  I have a review of several Fyrinnae blushes, eyeshadows, and one matte liquid lipstick.  I've had mixed feelings for Fyrinnae for awhile mainly because everyone gushes over their eyeshadows and the one time I tried them, I was not impressed (turns out I had the older loose formula instead of the semi-loose one).  Anyway, I came into a bit of money last month and wanted to try out their new liquid matte lipstick formula, especially their color Kitten.  As my luck would have it, Kitten was out of stock when I went on their website and I decided to pick up Dublin instead.  I've also seen so many raves of their blush formula and decided to pick up a few as well.

Fyrinnae is notorious for having a long TAT, but anyone familiar with the company knows that their TAT is actually much, much shorter.  I got my products within two weeks and have gotten to try out all of them.  Now you'll notice in the blush pictures that my application was very light and sometimes didn't even look like I'm changing my blush at all.  I went for a more wearable, everyday look instead of piled on my cheeks just to show off the color.  I want you all to see how they would look like applied and blended out naturally.  

Onto the swatches and review!

Pictures taken in daylight and swatched over ELF Glitter Primer (top/left half) and ELF Essential Primer (bottom/right half)

Ailurophile

Ailurophile:  purple with gold sparkles.  This was my free sample and I thought it was very pretty, even though I don't usually go for purples.