Empties Galore Part 2: Makeup I've Used Up!

Alright, you've seen my skincare empties in the previous post, and now, we're moving on to the makeup items that I've used up in the past 6 months or so! (There's also a skincare item that I forgot about for the previous post - oops - but otherwise, all the other items are makeup!) I'm pretty excited to talk about some of the items here, because some of these items are really my makeup staples, and although I don't often talk about them on my blog, they are some of the day-to-day backbone-of-my-routine type products.

Makeup and skincare empties that I can finally say I've used up in 2015!

On reflection, it's pretty appropriate that this post is going live on the last day of the year, because it really has that "out with the old, in with the new" vibe. And while I'm excited for the new products that I will be buying this upcoming year, it's also weirdly satisfying to see that I managed to use up some of my older products, too.

All the skincare and makeup empties I've accumulated over the past half a year or so

So, without further ado, let's get started!

Glitter Sandwich: A Happy Birthday manicure!

Remember the time I first got Lippmann's Happy Birthday nail polish? I layered it over white and I was so excited because it worked glitter magic over a plain ol' white.

This time, I tried it out again, in the form of a glitter sandwich! I thought the colorful glitter would make it a perfect candidate. Plus, I've been wanting to do a glitter sandwich for ages, so I thought - now's the time!



I used one coat of GOSH Snow, a sheer white jelly, as a base. Then I layered Lippmann Happy Birthday over. I used one coat, but had to dab a little to get the glitter coverage to be more even, and followed up with another cost of GOSH Snow.



Maybe I'm a layering idiot, but this kinda underwhelmed me. Perhaps it's because the glitter fiend in me is protesting, "You have an awesome blingy glitter, why are you covering it up with another cost of colour? You're hindering it's blingy-ness! That's evil! Evil!" But hey, sometimes you gotta try new things.



I guess, despite my initial doubt, this mani is growing on me. I feel like I need to play around with the colours in my stash a bit more to find more colour combinations to play around with, so expect to see more glitter sandwiches soon!



(Lippmann product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Holographic Zebra Stripes Nail Art with GOSH Holographic

One of my favourite polishes of all time has to be GOSH Holographic. This was one of the first holographic polishes I ever got (before OPI had their DS line and even before China Glaze had their holos, I think), and it's still, in my opinion, anyway, one of the best. The last time I used this little baby was waaay back in 2009, where I raved about how GOSH Holographic was so awesome, so I thought I'd bring this little baby out for a spin!

Three years down the road, I'm still loving this polish! GOSH Holographic is a classic silver linear holo, and it's now discontinued (although rumour is that GOSH may be bringing it out again this Summer - I don't know, it's just a rumour I heard, and dates I've seen range from June to August). I was lucky to get mine from a Superdrug before it was discontinued, so I didn't have to pay ripoff eBay prices. In my last post I featured GOSH Holographic all by itself, so this time I decided to get fancy and do some konading.

I used Wet n Wild Black for the black zebra stripes, and the konad plate was M57 (although the M57 plate is so famous I bet some of you guys can recognize the plate from the pattern). For some reason, though, I really couldn't get the right lighting to take the photos (no direct sunlight), so I ended up having to make do with crappy indoor lighting. Sorry folks. My original GOSH Holographic post probably has better pictures, I'm ashamed to admit.



Anyway, GOSH Holographic can be tricky to apply, but I generally use 2 - 3 coats for this, letting each layer (base coat as well as each individual layer of polish) dry fully before applying the next layer. I think this is key to not having GOSH Holographic clump up on your fingernails. I've read blog reviews expressing lots of frustration at the lipstick, and I feel a lot of the frustration is due to not letting each coat dry fully. My old GOSH Holographic post also went into some detail on how to apply this pollish, so I won't belabour the details, but suffice it to say - let each coat dry fully before applying the next coat, and you'll get a great holographic finish. Some bloggers advocating using the GOSH base coat to make this apply better, but for me, either way, it doesn't make a difference, as other base coats work well as long as they're left to dry fully before applying the polish.



Like all holos, this chipped on me fast - think the next 1-2 days. Holos never last on me, which is a pity, because I really love them. Anyway, this is a gorgeous little colour that is just so worth it. I know my photos suck, but I hope you get the idea of the sheer awesomeness of this polish. I really hope GOSH brings this colour out again, so more of us can have it!

GOSH Glamorous Eyeshadow Swatches

GOSH is one of my favourite UK drugstore brands, and so far, I've pretty much liked everything I tried from them, which to this point includes their nail polishes, lipsticks, eyeliners, eyeshadows, and probably a few more items that have slipped my mind. They're a tad more expensive than some of their competitors, but I do feel that the quality is worth the little bit extra.

I actually found these swatches of the GOSH Glamorous Eyeshadow sitting around in my hard drive, and I couldn't believe I hadn't posted them yet! I think these swatches have been lying around for a year, and I had just forgotten about them. Come to think of it, I really need to start looking through my photos and seeing what else I haven't posted yet...there's probably more where that came from.

L - R: 10 Gold, 11 Silver, 16 Copper, 13 Beige, 14 Grey Brown, 17 Purple, 12 Aqua, 15 Bottle Green

10 Gold is a shimmery yellow gold.
11 Silver is a white-silver. More white than silver, if you ask me.
16 Copper is a orangey coppery shade. Also has shimmer.
13 Beige is a shimmery light beige. This is slightly sheerer than some of the other shades.
14 Grey Brown is OMG TAUPE OMG TAUPE! *Calms down* Okay, it's a shimmery brownish-grey taupe. Unlike some other taupes, which also pull purple, this one doesn't have any purple in it. Very pretty, very neutral, and so work appropriate, too. Oh, by the way, the photo is mislabelled - the proper name is Grey Brown, not Brown Grey. D'oh!
17 Purple is a violet purple. This one has less shimmer than the rest - I can't remember if it's matte or not.
12 Aqua is a shimmery light sky blue shade.
15 Bottle Green is very pretty, too. It's an emerald green with glitter.

These are powder eyeshadows that come in a little dome, like the baked mineralized eyeshadows. They're meant to be used both dry as well as wet for more intensity. These swatches are all on dry skin. My favourites are Grey Brown (I've previously swatched Grey Brown together with other taupes) , as well as Bottle Green.

Dupe Search: Taupe Eyeshadow Comparison Swatches!

Woohoo! Don't you love it when I ransack my stash and do comparison swatches? What's more, these are swatches of taupes, glorious taupes! Now to be fair, these are just some of my taupes, definitely not all of them. It started when I reviewed the new Edward Bess eyeshadow single in Storm, and I thought - don't I already have these colours? So I looked through my stash, and dug out the colours that I thought would be most similar to Storm. So in other words, what you're looking at is just those of my taupe eyeshadows that I thought might have some semblance to Storm.



Here are the shades we're comparing today, in order:

1: NARS Belissima II (darker shade)
2: L'Orea HIP Electrified I (lighter shade)
3: MEMEME Beautifully You Eyeshadow Cafe 7
4: First Light Cosmetics Storm Grey
5: Bourjois Stretch Eyeshadow Brun Nylon 09
6: GOSH Glamorous Eyeshadow Grey Brown 7
7: Edward Bess Storm 07
8: Stila Cloud

Isn't it funny how many taupe eyeshadows that are numbered are given the number 7? And on another note, gosh, it's embarrassing how many taupe eyeshadows I've bought over the years of being a makeup fanatic. Anyway, here are swatches of all of them, in that order, with my thoughts on each of them below. By the way, the eyesahdow labelled L'Oreal Sassy is wrong. The duo is actually Electrified:



NARS Belissima II (darker shade) is the only true matte in the bunch, as the rest all have some sort of shimmer. This is a cool-toned grey-brown with hints of purple. Texture is decent, pigmentation is sheer but buildable.

L'Orea HIP Electrified I (lighter shade) is absolutely rockin'! Don't be fooled by the cheap plastic packaging or the drugstore brand - this is awesome taupe goodness. As you can see, it just stands out among my swatches. Its texture and pigmentation are also excellent, and it has a frosty finish that, depending on your preference, can be a good or a bad thing. I've actually reviewed the Electrified duo before and have even previously compared Electrified to a much more expensive Bobbi Brown Heather Mauve eyeshadow.

MEMEME Beautifully You Eyeshadow Cafe 7 is also another cheapy-but-goody. This is cheap, but good, and I really need to get around to reviewing this sometime. It's a brown-based taupe, and thus would be very wearable for warm-toned girls who find a lot of taupes pull purple or greyish on them. It also has slight shimmer, that for some reason isn't showing up in the photo.

First Light Cosmetics Storm Grey is another underrated gorgeous colour. Like Edward Bess's Storm and MEMEME's Cafe, it's a light brown-based taupe, only that it has more shimmer than either. Pigmentation and texture are also pretty good. An EOTD (Eye of the Day) with Storm Grey is available if you'd like to see more of this pretty little thing.

Bourjois Stretch Eyeshadow Brun Nylon 09 is not as similar to Edward Bess's Storm as I initially thought it would be. For one, it's less brown-beige-y and slightly more purple and grey on. They did look quite similar in the pan, however. Texture is good, and pigmentation is sheer but buildable. I've previously swatched Bourjois Brun Nylon before, and also once did an FOTD with it. My, that FOTD was just a year and a half ago, but I think I actually looked visibly younger then. And my photography skills back then sucked.

GOSH Glamorous Eyeshadow Grey Brown 7 is one of those I keep meaning to review, but never get around to it. No fault of the shadow, though. This one has the texture of baked eyeshadows (it comes in a round, hard dome), and pigmentation is sheer but buildable. It leans more grey than most of the other taupes featured here, and also has some sparkles in the eyeshadow.

Edward Bess Ultra Luminous Eyeshadow Storm 7 is a brown-based taupe. Honestly, compared to the rest of the taupes on my arm, it looks a little blah. But since it leans brown, it's less likely to pull purple or grey on warm-toned girls. Pigmentation was sheer, and not the best, but still buildable. Texture was also decent. I'm not going to say too much about this since I just reviewed it in the last post.

Stila Cloud is a taupe that pulls purple and grey, and has a frosty finish that makes it look silver, like how the L'Oreal Electrified taupe looks silver due to the frost finish. I actually should feature this sometime, I have had this eyeshadow since I first became a makeup junkie years ago and it's still with me...Brings back all the nostalgic times when Stila eyeshadows came in little paper pots, and when collecting Stila eyeshadows was the "in" thing of the day. Anyway, this one is cooler-toned that some of the other taupes, and is more purply-grey than some of the other more brown-based ones. It also has frosty shimmer, which some may like and some may not.

So here you go, eight of my lighter-coloured taupes! As a taupe junkie, I love all of these shades and I think they are all different enough to own all, although I'm sure not everyone would agree with me. They're almost like my babies! I hope this post was useful for some of you who wanted a comparison between some taupe eyeshadows.