Makeup Monday: Ulta-Exclusive LORAC Multidimensional Beauty Kit

I was so excited to get this when I ordered it, and then things got crazy and I never got to finish my post.... I'm still excited about it, actually, and I've had it for a couple months already.

LORAC Multidimensional Beauty collection. This is an Ulta exclusive and I'm pretty sure it's limited edition. In case you can't tell from this picture, the box is HOLO:

See?! How cool is that?? I know it's just a cardboard box, but it's a hologram cardboard box and you know what a sucker I am for good packaging.

But the outer carton isn't the only thing that's holo-esque... This kit comes with a metal-plated makeup bag that is pretty much the most amazing thing ever. My only complaint is that it's not big enough to carry as a purse. I took a million pictures.

The left hand side of the bag has a rainbow pattern that's always visible, but the right hand side has no stripes.

It changes colors depending on the angle. It's mesmerizing to look at. See down toward the opposite edge of the bag, where it looks like it's lighting up aqua? It looks even better in real life. Holo makeup bag. Gaaaaah so awesome....


Okay, enough about the bag already. Here's what's inside:

Three full sized eyeshadows in 3D-Luxe, 3D-Mension and 3D-Licious plus an Ulta exclusive shade of LORAC 3D Multiplex lipgloss in Ulta Glam.

3D-Luxe is a light ivory with peachy tinted duochrome and subtle iridescent sparkle, 3D-Mension is a plain metallic bronze and 3D-Licious is a MAC Club dupe (red toned brown with green-blue duochrome shimmer).

3D-Luxe is my favorite one... it's so gorgeous, none of my pictures come close to capturing how beautiful it is. It has such delicate iridescent sparkle and just a faint sheen of duochrome across the color...

If you enlarge these, you might be able to pick up a little of the depth of the color. You sorta have to see it in person to fully appreciate it.

The Ulta Glam shade of Multiplex gloss is just as mesmerizing... I think the purchase of the kit was worth it just for this beauty:
Ulta Glam is a copper rose shimmer base, sheer, with strong brassy gold duochrome at one angle and darker pink-rose duochrome at another angle plus lots of iridescent microglitter that also adds to the color-shiftiness. The best part? There's BLUE MICROGLITTER. Blue!!! Glitter!!


Swatched dry over bare skin: 3D-Luxe, 3D-Mension and 3D-Licious shadows and Ulta Glam Multiplex 3D gloss. You can kinda see the blue sparkles in the gloss, right?

This also came with a gift with purchase that I thought was pretty neat:

A sample of LORAC's new Multiplex 3D Lashes mascara that comes on a holo card, in a tube with holo text. Yep, no denying it, I'm easily swayed by how much holo foil comes on the package... The mascara itself it's something I'd normally use. I like the curved plastic pointy bristle brush, but the formula doesn't add any volume. It makes your lashes super long and defined, but doesn't add any thickness. It kinda seems like it makes them curl like those old curling mascaras, but it could just be my imagination....

The formula on the shadows seems consistent with the other LORAC shadows I've tried. Like I've mentioned before, I'm really new to LORAC shadows and I'm still not sure if this is the normal quality and texture or not. The texture is disturbingly soft and loose- I say disturbing because it seems like it loosens so much product every time I touch it with my brush that I could use the entire shadow in a week. Very loosely pressed, soft and powdery. Medium pigmentation and payoff, not super pigmented or opaque. Suitable for wet use to intensify the payoff and color. I'd recommend wet use if you like your colors intense like I do. They don't seem to wear very well due to the super soft light texture; they tend to fade a bit and wear off by the end of the day (I always use primer and it behaves the same over all primers I tried). The colors themselves are pretty and go well together and they look light and luminous on.

The gloss is amazing. I love the Multiplex formula. It's smooth and silky, lasts a reasonable amount of time and tastes/smells amazing. Is it lychee? I have no idea what the scent is, but it's light and fruity and soft and I really really like it. The Ulta Glam shade in this kit does not disappoint. It's super duochrome but also full of microglitter so it's sparkly on top of being duochrome. The only downside is that the glitter is kinda gritty.

I love this kit. I really hope LORAC keeps doing the whole multiplex 3D theme. They enable me in my duochrome addiction... Just wish they'd lower the price on their Multiplex glosses!

This is gone from the Ulta website already, but I've seen plenty of kits still in stock in-store recently, so you should be able to find one if you have an Ulta nearby. The whole kit is only $35 so it's an excellent value- a Multiplex gloss alone is $22 (and no, I won't stop complaining about the price) and a LORAC shadow single is $19.

Revlon Top Speed Violet and Royal

Here's a fun one... Two colors I really really love. In fact, these were the only two I picked up from the new Revlon Top Speed line. I still love that commercial, too. You know, the one where her nail polish keeps changing colors?


This one's called Violet.


This one is Royal.


The colors look truer in the bottles here:


But the whole "Top Speed Fast Dry" thing is a bit of a lie... For some reason, every time I wear either of these, they take forever to dry! I'm talking Barielle/Diamond dry times here.... Even with Seche Vite!

Oh, and the brushes... I hate the brushes... They're so floppy and horrible...

BUT! It doesn't matter to me because the colors are gorgeous.... I can deal with bad brushes and long dry time if the color is awesome enough. I just wish these could be the entire package: Good color, good formula and good brushes. Ah, well, can't win 'em all.

OPI Serena Glam Slam! France 2011 - Rally Pretty Pink and Red Shatter

OPI and Serena Williams have just released the next installment of their Glam Slam! series to coincide with the French Open. This time there are two sets of colors which each have a sparkling polish shade alongside a new shade of OPI's Shatter crackle polish.


Rally Pretty Pink. This is a sheer dark pink/mauve/plummy brown base with insane amounts of bright, shiny gold metal flake sparkle. Looks and sounds familiar, doesn't it? Zoya Faye? They seem very similar to me. Faye seems deeper and richer, Rally Pretty Pink seems lighter and slightly pinker. I don't have my bottle of Faye with me so I haven't been able to do a true side-by-side evaluation to determine just how similar they are. I love this (like I loved Faye), it's a stunningly gorgeous color.


Red Shatter over Rally Pretty Pink. Red Shatter is really fascinating! As you can probably tell from the pictures, it's sheer. It's like a jelly crackle. Because if the see-through quality of this, details of the base polish show through the red. See all the sparkles from Rally Pretty Pink? Pretty cool. Another interesting effect of the sheerness is that the tone of the red shatter can change based on what you layer under it.



See how much warmer it looks here with the orange showing through? This is OPI Red Shatter over Finger Paints Outta Sight Orange. This looks awesome over glittery orange, like a big shiny sparkling fireball.

The formula on both was great. Nice and smooth, good texture, fast dry time. The crackle effect works much better over dry polish, but I used it over wet polish in these pictures and it's still pretty good. Just be aware that when applying over wet polish, the crackle will spread as it dries and take the base polish with it, causing bald spots.

I love both of these, but I must say... what an odd color combination. I don't know how much I like the red crackle polish over the golden-mauve base color, I think it blends in too much. I don't dislike them together, but I think the crackle effect doesn't seem as pronounced as with other colors. Needs more contrast. Maybe a yellow underneath?

(These were sent to me for review.)

Finger Paints Palette of Petals Collection Spring 2011

Hey guys... I'm really not up to writing right now, but I really need to work through my backlog of posts because it's out of control and I feel like I'll never catch up. Would you forgive me if I only post pictures this time?

This is Finger Paints' Palette of Petals Collection from this spring.

Aren't You Gladiolus?

Carnation Creation.

Chrysanthemum's The Word.

Dahlia My Number.

Did You Ast-her Out?

Heavenly Hydrangeas.

(This was sent to me for review.)

Layering Nail Of The Day plus Random Eye of the Day!

Need to take a little break from doing spring/summer collection reviews. I still have a lot of things left to post until I'm all caught up, but right now I just want to post something fun and random. How about a manicure and an eye look from last week? I really liked these...


Nubar Ruby Red Glitz (one coat) over BB Couture Laced Corset (two coats). I started out with Laced Corset... It was the last thing I swatched (hope to have that review finished soon XD) and I left it on because I liked the color so much. But then I was thinking... It needs more sparkle. I wanted red. I actually wanted to do Revlon Slipper over it, but I couldn't find it. Ruby Red Glitz caught my eye and I decided on that. It turned out to be exactly what I wanted. The purple still shows through the red sheer base of Ruby Red Glitz, and the glitter in Ruby is sparse enough to not completely cover the base with chunky opaque glitter. Dare I say... this combination even looks a little 230-ish? Of course, nowhere near being a dupe or anything, but that red sparkle on top of purple with hints of gold sure makes me think of 230.

This is the eye look I was playing with last week:

This was:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Wet n Wild Blue Had Me At Hello Palette:
Left Side Browbone shade on lid
Left Side Eyelid shade on outer lid
Left Side Definer shade in crease
Right Side Eyelid on lower lashline
Urban Decay 24/7 Shadow Pencil in Clash on lower lashline (as a base for Wet n Wild Eyelid)
Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liner in Indigo
Cargo Highlight from the Warm Neutral Essential palette as highlight
Revlon Grow Luscious Mascara

And hey... My brows are almost entirely grown back now! That took a while.

I've been doing variations on this look for the past couple weeks, trying it with different colors of upper and lower liner... Adding glitter... I love that Wet n Wild Blue Had Me At Hello palette. Those shadows are amazing, Except... like Color Club Nothing But Truffle, this palette has accidentally given itself a new name due to the filename of a photo of it: Blue Had Meat Hello. Blue had meat, hello? Blue had Meat Hello? It's stuck. I can't help myself.

Bite Vitamin Gel Trio Review

This is a quick review I wanted to post for a friend before the Sephora VIB code expires...

Sorry I didn't take any pictures of my own. But, truthfully, besides the packaging, there's not much to photograph as the glosses are clear.

So. The Bite Beauty Vitamin Gel Trio. I've been curious about these ever since they showed up on Sephora.com and now that I've briefly tried them, here's what I think.

First thing I noticed was the size of the tube. They seem like they'd be bigger based on the picture on the website. They contain .31oz each.

The packaging is nice. The box of the trio contains three boxes inside, each containing a full size Bite Vitamin Gel. The tube is a molded clear plastic with a slant tip applicator and a very lovely grey rubberized cap.

The flavors/scents are:
Pink Grapefruit: This is what drew me in. Pink/red grapefruit are one of my favorite things ever. The scent and flavor of this one is a very light grapefruit. Much weaker than I was hoping for,

Blood Orange: I like blood oranges, too, but this doesn't smell or taste like one. It starts off smelling just like Orange Pop LipSmacker, but after a second that scent fades and it becomes pure bergamot scent and flavor. That's okay because it reminds me of Earl Grey tea, but not what I expected.

Mint: Just a light, sweet mint. Reminds me of something else... C.O. Bigelow Mentha Lip Shine? Very similar.

The texture is thick, oily/waxy and smooth. It's not so much a gel as it is a balm. It actually reminds me of the texture of Rosebud Salve, just not as slippery once it melts. It's more waxy, but it becomes melty and slick on the lips with a little thickness left over. It stays on for a while, but it doesn't feel particularly moisturizing or soothing. I actually find it a little bit irritating, but I've only worn it for a day, so this may change.

The color? There's no color. From the description online I thought there would be some tint, and there is a visible tint in the tube, but it is invisible on the lips.

These retail for $18 EACH. Seriously. $18 for an average lip balm, just because it contains Resveratrol. Thanks a lot, Dr. Oz. But, the set is only $28, $24-ish after the discount, so that's not so bad. But still, I would never pay $18 for one of these. They're quite ordinary.

Final verdict: Absolutely nothing special about these. I'm going to return mine because I don't feel that they're worth the $24 I paid for the set. I'd rather have some amazing Jack Black lip balm (if you haven't tried Jack Black lip balm, what are you waiting for?! You need to. I mean it.)

Weak scents, unimpressive formula. Pretty packaging, but that's just not enough for me to justify the price tag on these. If they were in the $7-$10 price range individually I might consider keeping them, but not at this price point.

EDIT: I used them a few more times just to be sure I was giving them a fair review. During this time, I discovered a few more things that I didn't notice the first time:

-The caps are loose. Once you unscrew them a few times, they become loose and spin too much, they never align properly or feel secure again.

-They last a really long time on my lips and look really nice, not too much shine. Good texture but still not very moisturizing.

-They sorta irritate my lips a little... A slight itching/tingling/raw sensation. Hm.

-Scents are still way too weak.

Color Club Alter Ego: Keep It Under Cover Collection Spring 2011 Swatches and Review

Aha... now here's the exciting part. Part two of Alter Ego (or really, probably part one, you can't really Keep It Under Cover after you've already revealed your mystery), Keep It Under Cover. This half is filled with glass fleck sparkle, duochrome shimmer and vibrant color.


Alias. This color has so many faces... It's purple, it's blue, it's glass fleck... It has yellow flash, green flash, red flash... Purple shimmer! Silver shimmer! Pink shimmer! It's freakin' awesome.


Alter Ego. This has a very greyed-out purple base with crazy gold and silver glass fleck shimmer. Very, very shiny... Very cool to look at.


Masquerading. This is an interesting color. You'll notice in the first picture that it dries matte. I'm not sure if it's intended to be a matte, it doesn't seem to have that typical matte formula and it doesn't chip as easily as mattes do... Just a bonus feature, I suppose! In the second picture I've added topcoat. It is a metallic grey-teal, a touch on the frosty side but not super streaky. Nice depth to it, though... Looks light in the middle and dark on the edges, I love that! Black highlights!


Secret Agent. Gorgeous silky vibrant purple. It's a frost. Like Masquerading, it's a silky frost, not a streaky frost. Just a very fine shimmer with a soft-feeling formula. Makes me think of Jessica Birds of Paradise or something.



Total Mystery. I have to apologize for these terrible pictures. Why does it always have to be that the best colors are the hardest to capture? This is the best color I've seen in a while. It's crazy. It's bright blue and purple. Blurple? It's duochrome and shimmery. It's like OPI Ink on steroids. Everyone who saw me wearing it commented on it. I just grabs your eye and won't let you look away. If you like blue or purple, you have to get this one. At least see it in person if you can.


Ulterior Motive. This is a fun one, too. It has a dark pink / dark fuchsia glass fleck base and lots of very visible blue and purple glass fleck pearls. Go ahead, enlarge the pictures, check out those sparkles! I love blue sparkles!

The formula on these was great as well. No application issues to be found. Great dry time and wear time. Opacity was good, but I did three coats on all just to see what it looks like. Also, since this set comes with the Vivid 10 Color Intensifying Topcoat, I put a coat of that on as well.

The Vivid topcoat is a lot like the Milky White basecoat; it has a slight blue-violet tint and it brightens colors. It's not really that noticable. It is a very nice topcoat, though. Very shiny, adds a little brightness. It makes a perfect refresher topcoat if your mani has lost its shine. Dries quickly.

Now, this collection has me excited. The excessive amount of purple and duochrome make my heart skip a beat. Every color is great and beautiful. Total Mystery is a definite must have for me, and I'm thinking about getting a few backups, I love it so much.

And hey... purple glass fleck duochromes for spring? I have to love them for that. Sure, they did pastels too, but they did this at the same time! They gave us holos and duochromes and glass flecks for spring a few years back... Now every year I can't wait to see what Color Club is going to do next. Always a surprise.

(These were sent to me for review.)