Yay for New Releases! Recently I had the opportunity to test out and play with some new Rainbow Honey goodies that were just released with their Summer MixTape collection. This collection includes 12 new cremes, shimmers and glitters and they are all jaw dropping and gorgeous. This new collection (released July 18th) is now available for purchase on Rainbow Honey’s website and offers you a shade range you will be drooling over.
This Image is Copyright RainbowHoney.com
Summer Mixtape! is available as a complete collection in full size (15 ml each, $90 promotional price for the whole collection of 12 polishes) and mini (5 ml each, $45 promotional price – currently sold out). Each full size color is also available separately (15 ml) for just $10 each. Check out my reveal/video embedded below or click here to watch it directly on YouTube. Scroll down to see photos of the three shades I got.
I received three colors from the collection and I wanted to share them with all of you. Of course, the full size bottles come in the signature Rainbow Honey packaging (which I absolutely love).
Left to Right: Control, Work It Out and Elevate.
Control is a shimmering fuchsia that is almost neon and is a great statement shade for summer or year round. If you love hot pinks, this will surely be an awesome shade to add to your collection.
Work it Out is a creme coral that is another perfect summer staple. This shade can be used alone or topped with your favorite statement glitter.
Elevate is a glitter that includes a blend of blues, turquoise and other shades like green, yellow, pink and white. This glitter is pretty cool in that it looks like confetti on the nails, and offers a variety of glitter shapes from micro glitter to hexes and circles and so much more. Every time I think I have nailed down all the glitter in this bottle, I find another I didn’t see before. lol
Each swatch was done on my nail wheel and each color was done in two coats. The more coats you apply, the deeper Control and Work It Out become in shade. I apologize for the nail wheel swatches, but as I do nail looks using these shades, I’ll definitely post them here. Overall I think these shades are gorgeous. Rainbow Honey is really great at creating a selection of colors. For the price point of each, you are not only supporting a great brand, but getting awesome product. I already have my eyes on I Wanna Get Better, Waves, One Minute More, and Lanterns. The list goes on, but I am surely lovely them all regardless.
Want to check out Rainbow Honey and see all they have to offer? Use promo code MIXTAPE20 to receive 20% off your next order. Promo code expires on 8/31/2014 to take advantage of it while you can. You can check out what Rainbow Honey has to offer on their site: rainbowhoney.com
When I first got word to expect the Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eye Shadow Collection, I literally squealed both in excitement and joy. You see, if you don’t already know – I’m a huge fan of Milani Cosmetics and have been enjoying their products now for several years… but I haven’t been completely awed by their eye shadows up until this point, so I was really excited to see what kind of awesome they had in store.
The new Milani Bella Eyes Shadow Collection includes 30 beautiful shades in a variety of colors. These eye shadows retail for just $3.99 (major steal) for 0.05 oz/1.4g worth of product. Made in the USA, these shadows are said to be a Gel-like powder that will provide a rich, vibrant color that applies effortlessly in one single stroke, delivering a stunning and multi-dimensional effect. Now, in the video I stated that I am really not sure how they got the name “Gel Powder” but after doing some reading I found out that the formula used to create the shadow starts as a gel and then is transformed by a special process into a stunning powder with pure color and power wear.
Check out my review with swatches via YouTube here, or scroll down to see my video review embedded below. Don’t forget to check out all the swatches and my thoughts on each.
Below are the photos of each shadow as well as their swatches and my thoughts on each. Please note that the shades may be slightly different depending on your screen resolution and color set up. I tried my best to get the colors as close as I seen them with my regular eyes so I photographed with the best lighting possible. All swatches are done dry and without primer so you could see how they work on their own. The names of each shadow and swatch are listed from Left to Right to compare to the photos.
BELLA IVORY ~ BELLA SAND ~ BELLA CAPPUCCINO
Bella Ivory, Bella Sand, Bella Cappuccino
Bella Ivory is a Satin Matte shade and I have been using it as a browbone highlight shade as well as an all over the lid shade. Considering this is a satin matte shade, it has great pigmentation and applying just one application will yield great color.
Bella Sand is a Shimmery shade that is perfect for all over the lid. It is packed rich with color in one swipe and perfect for most if not all skin tones.
Bella Cappuccino is a Satin Matte shade and is a medium brown tone. While I think this shade does have pretty good pigmentation, it can take a little to get it to the deepness in shade that you will want if you have darker skin like me. This works as a great transition shade for me and I can also use it to fill in my brows.
Bella Caffe is a Satin Matte that is a great shade for me to use in my brows for light shading in the sparse areas of my brows. This is also a great shade to use all over the lid or in the crease, even as transition. This color does take a little more effort to apply in some cases and I noticed I needed to build the color up a little more on it than on other shades, but it still offers pigmentation.
Bella Taupe is one of my favorite shades to deepen the crease. It is a Satin Matte that has almost a purple tone when swatched but blended with other shades, it works really well. This is a great color for a crease shade.
Bella Espresso is also a Satin Matte and is much lighter of a shade then I had expected when seeing it in the pot. This is a great smoky eye shade or can be used all over the lid.
Bella Caffe, Bella Taupe, Bella Espresso Swatches
BELLA WHITE ~ BELLA SKY ~ BELLA NAVY
Bella White, Bella Sky, Bella Navy
Bella White is a Satin Matte white shade. While this is a matte shade, it really lends to be almost metallic without any shimmer. It’s a pure white that makes it very pretty for an inner corner highlight or all over the lid.
Bella Sky is a Shimmer shade and lends for a gorgeous baby blue almost silver.
Bella Navy is a Satin Matte shade but lends for an almost metallic finish. It’s a deep navy blue.
Bella White, Bella Sky, Bella Navy Swatches
BELLA GRAY ~ BELLA CHARCOAL ~ BELLA BLACK
Bella Gray, Bella Charcoal, Bella Black
Bella Gray is a Satin Matte shade that is perfect to deepen the outer v or crease or use all over the lid. This color lends for a silver look which is perfect for smoky eye looks
Bella Charcoal is a deep silver Shimmer shade. I absolutely love this color and this shade would look beautiful on most skin tones
Bella Black is a Satin matte shade that is rich in pigment. I absolutely love this black to deepen the outer v or crease or to use as an eyeliner. Used wet this shade is a great eye liner.
Bella Gray, Bella Charcoal, Bella Black Swatches
BELLA PINK ~ BELLA VIOLET ~ BELLA PURPLE
Bella Pink, Bella Violet, Bella Purple
Bella Pink is a cool toned shimmery pink shade and lends for an almost white hue. This shimmer shade is a perfect lid color.
Bella Violet is a violet (kind of lavender) shimmer shadow and is gorgeous when applied dry or wet.
Bella Purple is a beautiful Satin matte shade that applies beautifully both wet or dry but is a deeper richer shade if applied wet and a perfect transition shade or to deepen the crease if applied dry.
Bella Pink, Bella Violet, Bella Purple Swatches
BELLA CHAMPAGNE ~ BELLA KHAKI ~ BELLA EMERALD
Bella Champagne, Bella Khaki, Bella Emerald
Bella Champagne is a beautiful pink toned champagne like shade with a shimmer finish.
Bella Khaki is a gold khaki type green – kind of an olive green (one of my favorite colors in the whole collection) that has a soft gold shift. This is a shimmer shade and applies great wet or dry.
Bella Emerald is a deep green (definitely a great emerald) with a shimmer finish. There is a gold shift to this shadow and it applies beautifully both wet or dry.
Bella Rouge is a beautiful metallic pink red shade.
Bella Silver is metallic silver that looks a little deeper in shade in the pot then it does swatched. Nonetheless, it’s a gorgeous color.
Bella Teal is probably one of my favorites (as many know – Purple is my favorite color and teal a close second). This is a Metallic shadow and while it’s not pictured above, it has a soft gold/green shift that is just beautiful. This shade applies perfectly both wet or dry and even better over a teal or black base.
Bella Rouge, Bella Silver, Bella Teal Swatches
BELLA GOLD ~ BELLA COPPER ~ BELLA BRONZE
Bella Gold, Bella Copper, Bella Bronze
Bella Gold is a gorgeous metallic shadow. This is a warm yellow toned yellow with a light copper/bronze shift, that may not be a favorite of those who like softer gold shades but this works great on the lid or all over in any creation you can think of. I love that it can be worn both wet and dry.
Bella Copper is a true copper metallic shade.
Bella Bronze is a true bronze brown shade. It is warm toned and will go nicely as an all over shade or worked into the crease or outer v. Rich and highly pigmented, one of my favorites in the bunch.
Bella Gold, Bella Copper, Bella Bronze Swatches
BELLA COBALT ~ BELLA FUCHSIA ~ BELLA MANDARIN
Bella Cobalt, Bella Fuchsia, Bella Mandarin
Bella Cobalt is a medium toned blue with a satin matte finish. It looks almost metallic in the pot but has a satin feel. This blue is gorgeous wet or dry.
Bella Fuchsia is a Satin matte fuchsia pink. While it’s a gorgeous shade, the pigment is just not as bright as others in the collection and when swatched or applied to the eyes, you have to really build up the color to get the intensity in the pot. It will work as a great transition shade and will apply much more of a bold shade if over a base like a white, pink or black.
Bella Mandarin is a satin matte medium toned orange. This is the only orange in the entire collection – I had hoped for a metallic one. I have been using this as a transition shade and it works well on the lid but I do suggest applying over a white base. When used wet this shade can be patchy.
Bella Chiffon is probably one of my favorite shades in the whole collection. It is a cream/ivory shade with a gold shift. I love to use this shimmer shade in the inner corner of my eyes to help brighten and highlight my eyes. This shade is my favorite because of the color as well as the shift of gold. It makes it perfect for summer.
Bella Rose is a light pink shimmery shade with a soft silver hue. It certain light it looks almost silver and would also be a perfect highlight shade or used on the lid. This shade looks great wet or dry.
Bella Diamond is a shimmery white with a light metallic silver hue. This is a great all over the lid shade or used as a highlight. It’s gorgeous.
Bella Chiffon, Bella Rose, Bella Diamond Swatches
Like I mentioned in my video, when you first feel the shadows, they do not offer a gel like feel – they feel like a powder shadow. But, I noticed that I had little to no fall out from these shadows as I would normally experience from other powder shadows. Unless they were overly shimmery, they applied really nicely and made clean up really easy after my makeup application was done.
As I mentioned in the swatches above, there are a few shadows that took a little effort when applying or using them and most of those shadows included those that are matte/satin shades. While that can be a problem, I don’t think it was an actual con in my opinion. Honestly, those shades made such great transition shades for my eye looks because of their soft texture, that even if I want to build up the color a bit, I’m still very impressed. If you have tried Milani’s original single pot shadows or their baked shadows and were not completely wowed by any of them… I think these will offer redemption quite easily because I’m super impressed. Honestly, it’s been difficult switching these out and using other cosmetics in my collection… I really enjoy them.
In the makeup look above I am using Bella Mandarin as my transition shade, Bella Bronze as my crease shade, Bella Gold as my lid shade, Bella Taupe blended and placed into my outer v to deepen my crease, Bella Ivory as my brow bone highlight shade and Bella Chiffon as my inner corner highlight shade. A tutorial for the makeup look can be found here. As you can see from the look – the colors are pigmented and can be used for an every day or sultry look.
If I could make a few suggestions it would be to add a rich Metallic or satin matte Red shade to the collection (or both) as well as a metallic orange. I would also love to see a softer gold shade that is similar to that of Urban Decay’s Half Baked. While the packaging is still a bit bulky and I don’t believe these can be depotted, I love that they top of the pot is flat, allowing for stacking the shadows, which was unable to be done effectively with the single baked shadows.
Pigmentation is wonderful. Again – while a few shades were not as perfect as others, I still know I’ll be using them and I love that some of the cool toned browns give me the option to use them to fill in my brows. The feel of these shadows are unlike those I use often. They have a buttery like texture, minus the fall out and dust you get from a buttery shadow. Application on the eyes is smooth and over all I’m pretty impressed. These Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eye Shadows are definitely a great value for the price and overall, I think they are pretty awesome. Great job Milani – I’m really loving these.
Disclaimer: I did receive these products as a part of a Press Sample however, all opinions are my own and 100% honest & unbiased.
I have reviewed products from Perlier in the past and have had positive experiences with their products. Recently I received the Perlier Shea Butter White Lily Hand Cream…
Yay – I have finally found the time to post my Summer Essentials video. Honestly, this is the second video I filmed and worked on but since my original video was 40 minutes long, I decided that I really needed to be more tactful with regard to what and how I posted so after some planning the last couple of weeks, here is the result. I hope you enjoy the video and I hope you are enjoying summer.
I have a love for all things colorful and vibrant… oh, and sparkly. Let’s face it -most girls do… and some guys and I think color adds a bit of excitement and happiness to life. Recently, I have had the privilege to read and watch a review by Phyrra, where she talked about these awesome shadows from Colour Pop Cosmetics.
Colour Pop offers a wide variety of eye shadows for just $5.00 each – total steal, with 2.1g (0.07 oz) of product. Quite a bit of product in the jar. Each shade offers bold, vivid color that comes with a very reasonable price tag. Shipping was super duper quick, I placed my order on a Saturday and got my products in the mail on Tuesday a few days later. As you can tell from the photo above, packaging for shipment is great – offering protection from the shipping mishaps that can occur. Each of my little jars were snug in its box and then encased in another box for shipment. Shipping definitely wowed me from the get-go and it was a great day when I opened up such a gorgeous box holding beautiful goodies… woohoo – talk about kid in a candy store.
Colour Pop’s store offers a wide variety of shades in different sheen and textures… You can find colors from neutrals and satin feels to bright bold neon shades and shimmer galore. If you spend $30 or more they offer you free shipping to those who live in the United States – which includes me in little ol’ Hawaii, so I was super stoked to say the least. So – let’s move on to those pretty shadows, shall we?
Each shadow comes snug in a box which has a sticker with the shadow name, ingredients and all the information you could ask for when buying an eye shadow or cosmetics. I also love that the little box has a window so you can get a peak of the shadow before taking it out of the box.
I also love that the boxes each have cute little details written on them – again, Colour Pop is awesome and has a pretty nice wow factor when it comes to their packaging.
As stated on the box, each shadow is Made in the USA – which is awesome and they are also a Cruelty Free brand… yay for the Animals!
I purchased six shades – mainly so that I would have a range of shadows to try but also to take advantage of the free shipping. The shades I chose were (Top to Bottom – Left to Right) Amaze, Cheeky, Sugar, Pop Rocks, Ibiza and I Heart This. I also did my best to test out shades in a different sheen and texture.
Amaze is a gorgeous Rose Gold shade – with a bronze twist in my opinion… it lends for a nice soft gold shade with hints of pink/rose and slightly bronze. This is a shimmery shade.
Cheeky is my favorite out of all the colors I purchased, probably because I use it for more than just my eyes. It’s a peach hued shade that lens for a soft baby pink undertone and blends out so pretty. It is a satin type finish, so while it is not really matte and there is some shimmer, it doesn’t have glitter in it (that I noticed) like the other shades.
Pop Rocks is one of Colour Pop’s Tie Dye shades. While it does have a few different colors blended in the shadow, when swatched or worn, a turquoise/teal shade is what turns out to be the most prominent. This is not a shadow that you can pick and choose the color you want to use, it is not that easy to use the shades all separately – so using it blended with the final result is best.
Ibiza is absolutely gorgeous and one of my favorites. It’s teal shade is shimmery but still packs a huge punch of color. I have been enjoying using this as an eyeliner, applied with a defining brush to create my winged liner on my upper lash line or as a pop of color on my lower lash.
Now – I have been using I Heart This almost every day the last 2 weeks as a shade used all over my lid. This gorgeous shade is one I recommend and definitely in my Top 3 out of the shades I currently own. It’s oozing shimmer but still packs a beautiful taupe-silver shade that you just can’t keep your eyes off of. If you like glitz, shimmer and glitter… I definitely suggest this shade as one you should try.
Sugar is a beautiful blue mix shade… it lends for a mix between a baby blue and a turquoise with a mix of silver… it literally reminds me of cotton candy or sugar art pieces you see in beautiful food displays. It’s a gorgeous shade, shimmery like a lot of the others, but lends for a mix between silver and blue. This shade is so pretty… I feel like I’m looking at a quartz… I don’t even want to touch it. On the eyes – this shade makes for a great highlight on the inner corner of your eyes, all over lid shade or a pop of color.
Overall, the color pay off on the Colour Pop Shadows I purchased is phenomenal – though I’ll admit they are a bit tricky to work with. They offer a kind of mousse or wet like texture to the touch, which reminded me of the Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blushes, or almost like a mousse. While they do not need a primer or base under them for longevity or color pay off, I always suggest it and think it would definitely beneficial. Longevity of these shadows is phenomenal… with minimal fading and no primer or base, I was able to get them to last on my eyes for a good 7 hours before they started to really show any wear. Granted, the shimmer shadows were the ones that creased first, they still offered vibrant color for hours. I didn’t notice any staining left on my eye lids from Pop Rock or Ibiza, which was awesome… they came off with my facial towelettes without any issues.
Colour Pop states that the best way to apply the shadows and get the best vibrancy and color pay off is to apply using your finger… this is definitely true and something that took me a little to get used to, especially since my nails are long. If you are looking to do precision work, a detailed synthetic brush will work best and tapping or patting the color on instead of swiping it on will avoid fall out. I did however notice though, that the most shimmery shades offered the most fall out, even if I was to be careful – so that is something you may want to take into consideration when applying. I would hold off on any face makeup before doing your eye makeup. These shadows apply nicely with the finger tips and that is how I apply Cheeky as my blush shade. Overall – I think this brand and the products are pretty awesome – so much so that I just placed my second order and can’t wait to get my hands on the new Beach, Please collection.
Have you tried Colour Pop shadows before? What are your thoughts on them? Don’t forget to check out my video posted above or click here to watch directly on YouTube where I do a swatch test as well as talk about the products.
In 2011 I created this makeup look. It was one of my most popular then, one that definitely got attention and it was even featured on the Homepage of Beautylish that year. I’m not gonna lie, it was exciting and definitely cool to see years of playing and doing makeup to see your work start to get noticed on the Worldwide Web. Looking back at this photo from almost 3 years ago is a reminder of how far I have come… not only in learning more about makeup, but more about my skin, about how I thought of myself, my appearance and so much more. Basically – looking back on this, I am reminded of how far I have come as a person… my throwback Thursday is about reflection of where I have been and how far I have come.
Have you ever stopped to look at an old photo and think to yourself… “Wow – time sure has come and gone!” and then realize that the path you have taken the last couple of years while difficult was a road that needed to be traveled? Yup – that was me… and let me just say, that this road was one filled with a lot of learning. I’m proud to say that I have learned so much about the person I am and it’s taken three years to realize that a person can grow overnight. Let’s be honest here… we didn’t think that this was all going to be about makeup… right?
While this photo was taken just under three years ago, it shows a person who isn’t smiling… who looks, almost rugged and rough. Yes, the pretty face (lol) and exterior may look nice, but this is the photo of a woman who is still trying to figure out who she is in the beauty community… but realized later that she is exactly who she was meant to be… herself. So now… when you look at a photo of this women, majority of the time, there is a smile on her face… and when there is not – it’s just because she is trying to look fashionable. lol I have learned more than ever in the last 3 years that beauty is only skin deep… and that it was important that I must be comfortable in my own skin. I’m not gonna lie, I have those days where I wallow in self doubt… come on now, we all do – no matter how much we try to get away from it. But, I have also learned to look in the mirror and be proud of who I am, the accomplishments over the years, how I look and most importantly know that the company I keep is worth my time, energy and love.
People forget that life is a journey… every day – every week – every year… we learn and we either grow by learning or we take a step back and become what we are not meant to be, when all we are supposed to be… is ourselves. Love and Kisses from me to you!
