Quick Swatches and Impressions of Bare Minerals The Elements Quad

Bare Escentuals® bareMinerals® 'ReadyTM 4.0' Eyeshadow Palette

At my last Sephora trip I spotted the Bare Escentuals Bare Minerals Eyeshadow Palette in Elements. Normally I wouldn't get something with an orange or a sheer sparkly colour in it, but I've kinda fallen for this pressed quad and it's on my wishlist!

The Elements palette

In the quad there are four shades, a shimmery pink-tinged beige, a matte almost green undertoned light grey, a matte toasted orange and a satin dusky teal. All are super pigmented and buttery in texture, though as the shimmery shade is so light it applies semi-sheer unless you build it up a bit.

 And because I like to name things- from top to bottom: Water, Earth, Air and Fire :D

The palette costs $38 CND with only 0.17 oz of product total but as the shadows are so pigmented it's still tempts me!
What about anyone else? Tried these quads from Bare Minerals?

Cult Nails~ Vicious Swatch and Review

Cult Nails Vicious (Cult Website Bottle Photo)

I've got another Cult Nails polish for everyone today! A dark royal purple creme called Vicious. This is very dark and looks almost black in some lights but is distinctly purple in sunlight.

I adore purples so I purchased this during the first $5 sale. This is probably the best of the Cult polishes I have in terms of wear time. It lasted a phenomenal 2 weeks with the Cult Nails top and Base coat (which are still my favourites as well). I rarely expect a full week out of my polishes so I was needless to say impressed. Above is shown with two coats of Vicious and Wicked Fast top coat, Get It On base coat.

On my purple comforter!

 Overall another winner from Cult Nails! A tad too dark for me in some lights but an excellent polish formula wise and still a nice colour. If you haven't tried out Cult Nails yet I'm not sure why you haven't. A $10 each these are some of the best polishes I've tried.

Sprite Rating: 9.5/10 (I took off half a mark only for it being darker than I wanted by a but.)

Would I buy it again? Yes, I would. I figure a light coat of something else underneath would solve the dark issue and the formula is so phenomenal that if I managed to finish the bottle I'd purchase it more than once!

Cult Nails $5 Sale (Part 2)

Just a quick post to let you know about the Cult Nails sale that will be going on Saturday. It's for one day only and will apply to specific colours (ones that were sold out for the previous sale).
You can buy up to 3 polishes at the sale price. I bought three during the last sale and I'm quite pleased. Vicious is my current manicure from that purchase and will be showing up as a review soon!

The specific shades are:
* Feel Me Up (Buttercup yellow)
* Crusin' Nude (Nude with pink shimmer)
* Living Water (Dark teal-blue jelly with medium blue glitter)
* Let Me Fly (Dusty medium teal with silver shimmer)
* Hypnotize Me (Shimmer pale green jelly top coat of light green and blue)
* Enigmatic (Warm red-based purple with lots of blue, pink and purple shimmer)
* Iconic (Gorgeous berry red with gold shimmer and flakies- one of my favourites!)
* Nevermore (One coat Black)

So be sure to check out the Cult Nails Facebook page friday so that you get the discount code! Plus they have some sneak peaks of a new collection coming out! Very exciting!

Morgana Cryptoria Lipstick Swatchfest

L-R: Absinthe, Troll Repellent, Fallen Angel, Fairy Dust, Rose Plum, Coral Rose, Elegance, Sunset Peach

I just received my order from the Morgana Cryptoria Easter Sale. I purchased three new lipsticks which brings my total traditional lipsticks from this company to a total of eight. I've tried their lip glosses, Gel lipsticks and balms and none of them compare really to the lipstick formula. It's super long wearing, highly pigmented and not too drying. Plus the colours available rock.

This post is really picture heavy but I wanted to show you how the colour changes for many of these depending on the lighting. They also look quite different swatched on skin than on lips so I've tried to include as many lip swatches as I can.

When looking through Morgana Cryptoria's swatches I've found that they are often a shade to two shades lighter in the pictures online than in real life so I wanted to provide some alternative swatches for everyone. Enjoy!

Outside, T-B: Sunset Peach, Fairy Dust, Elegance, Troll Repellent, Coral Rose, Rose Plum, Absinthe, Fallen Angel

Inside, T-B: Sunset Peach, Fairy Dust, Elegance, Troll Repellent, Coral Rose, Rose Plum, Absinthe, Fallen Angel

T-B: Sunset Peach, Fairy Dust, Elegance, Troll Repellent, Coral Rose, Rose Plum, Absinthe, Fallen Angel 

Inside, T-B: Sunset Peach, Fairy Dust, Elegance, Troll Repellent, Coral Rose, Rose Plum, Absinthe, Fallen Angel

 Close-ups!

Outside, T-B: Troll Repellent, Coral Rose, Rose Plum, Absinthe, Fallen Angel

Outside, T-B: Fairy Dust, Elegance, Troll Repellent, Coral Rose, Rose Plum, Absinthe

Outside, T-B: Sunset Peach, Fairy Dust, Elegance, Troll Repellent, Coral Rose

Inside, T-B: Elegance, Troll Repellent, Coral Rose, Rose Plum, Absinthe, Fallen Angel

T-B: Fairy Dust, Elegance, Troll Repellent, Coral Rose, Rose Plum, Absinthe

Inside, T-B: Sunset Peach, Fairy Dust, Elegance, Troll Repellent, Coral Rose

Inside, L-R: Fallen Angel, Absinthe, Rose Plum

 Lip Swatches

Elegance

Elegance

Fairy Dust (outside) 

Fairy Dust (inside)

Troll Repellent

Fallen Angel

Absinthe (with lime green shimmer in clear gloss on top- you can barely see it but it's there)

Rose Plum

Sunset Peach

Rose Coral

Cult Nails Scandalous~ Swatch & Review

I recently indulged in the Cult Nails $5 sale and Scandalous was one of the shades I purchased. It is such a bright shade. I described it to my mother as electric coral flamingo. The polish is a Jelly finish so there is visible nail line but depending on the amount of layers you use the noticeability of nail line varies.

The strange thing about this polish is how much it changes depending on the light your in. Sometimes it's quite peach other times very orange, and others more pinky. 

 The formula on this is pretty good. I used four coats as I prefer a more opaque look but you could use less. I found it needed at least two though because otherwise my nails just looked yellow and unhealthy. It has lasted very well as do most of the Cult Nails polishes do. However, I just don't like the colour on me. No fault really of the polish, it's just too bright and warm for me.

Overall, a good but bright jelly polish. Needs at least two to three coats to take away yellowness but does go away. Excellent lasting ability.

Sprite Rating: 8/10- Lost points for needing 4 coats to satisfy my coverage needs. Plus it's just way too bright for me. (Not really the polish's fault)

Would I Buy It Again? No. I like the formula but the colour just isn't for me.