Spectrum Palette for Christmas Party

Yesterday we had a company Christmas dinner, and boy was it good! Delicious food, good company and a gorgeous view of the city at night. I wore the Pearl Lowe dress my other half gave me for Christmas last year, and because I'm a bit obsessed with the Spectrum palette, I used it once again.

The shades I used are Deep End, Backlash, Flashback, Omen, and Sugarpill Tako for a highlight.

Deep End is the teal on the lower lid, Backlash is a vibrant pink in the middle of the lid, in the inner part of the lid I placed Omen, and Flashback is the darker purple in the crease. Lips are Deranged by Black Moon Cosmetics.

Urban Decay Spectrum Palette Look

Here's the first documented look done with the Spectrum palette by Urban Decay! I had tried a neutral look before, but was on a business trip with no access to my good camera, so I have no pictures of that.

This one combines many of my favourite shades in the palette. I wanted to use Deep End, a vibrant teal, and built the look around it.

For the inner corners and brow bones, I used Sugarpill Tako, a matte white. All other shades are from the Spectrum palette. On the lid is Omen, blending into Madness on the outer edge. In the crease I started with Madness, then added Deep End above it and blended carefully. For the lower lid I chose Flashback. I think Flashback and Deep End are just the perfect pair, my favourite shades! As an added bonus, this look goes great with my pink eyebrows :)

Aside from eyeshadows, I drew a thin line on the upper lid with black eyeliner and added black mascara.

Urban Decay Spectrum Palette

I'll just start with: Best. Palette. Ever!

When the Spectrum palette first came out, I was looking at all the reviews and very excited. Then it turned out to be Sephora exclusive, and I was super bummed. No Sephora's in Finland, and Sephora in the states has made it really difficult to order from abroad. So no palette for me, I just gave up.

Last week I was casually browsing Finnish beauty blogger's group in Facebook and noticed a post where someone was asking if the Gwen Stefani palette will come online, as some palettes had been added that day. So I went to take a look, I like Urban Decay's palettes. And there it was. The Spectrum Palette was online and at my nearest Urban Decay counter, with no previous notification!

The palette is not hinged, but a box with lovely cut details on the edges.

Now it's finally mine! I like Urban Decay's Naked palettes, but I often use colours in my looks and I especially like pinks, purples and turquoises, so I only have a Naked Basics palette of the Naked line. Electric palette had too many shades that I wouldn't use, as did the Vice palette. But the Spectrum palette is just perfect for me. Three purples, two pinks, a gorgeous teal and blues that go well with it, and a few very usable brown shades too. I've made two looks with the palette so far, and all of the shades seem to go well together. I'm also quite impressed with the quality: the shadows blend well, have plenty of pigment and are very easy to work with. I think I could survive for weeks if not months with this palette alone! The only thing it's missing is a matte highlight for the brow bone, but I'm using Sugarpill Tako for support.

Lets take a peek inside...

Ta-dah! 15 neat pressed eyeshadows inside, arranged in rows of similar shades.

The top three rows have green and teals, blue and purple. Deep End is something that I'm itching to try, but went this morning for Protest instead for a more muted office look. I'm not usually too keen on greens, but olive green shades are an exception, and Junkie is more of a teal than green.

I can already say that Madness and Evidence will be the hardest shades to use in this palette, as blues are not my thing. But then again they look like they will be perfect with the teals, so maybe I'll find new way to use these babies.

Omen, Flashback and Voodoo are all very easy-to-wear shades for me, I love purples.

The lowest two rows have mostly neutral, everyday shades, except for Backlash, the gorgeous pink. Daybreak, Burn and West make for an excellent combination, and they seem like the type of shades that look good on all skin tones. Bordello is an interesting one, it's kinda pink, but with gold shimmer to warm it up and make it more metallic. Flatline is the closest thing to a brow highlight shade, but I prefer mattes for that task. Flatline has a nice pink sheen and can be combined with many of the darker shades for extra depth and complexity.

This is such an exciting palette! I don't think I've ever been this stoked for any palette before ;D All of the shades look like very "me" colours, the quality is great, and I just love bright colours in these shades! Especially after having a difficult time with the Edward Scissorhands palette from Sugarpill, this was just what I needed. My favourite colours in a beautiful palette.

Mac Black Night

Yesterday I treated myself to a new lipstick! Mac came out with a new collection called Dark Desires. I'm usually a fan of dark shades and this was no exception. I'm not too keen on single pressed eyeshadows, but one of the lipsticks caught my eye. This is Dark Night.

It's described as a black lipstick, but on goth standards, it's a very easy-to-wear black. It's sheer and can be used on top of other shades to darken them. The best part is the wonderful shimmer. There's copper shimmer and just a hint of green shimmer, creating a very unique sheen to the lipstick.

I tried Dark Night on top of Nightmoth lip liner and really like the result. I applied the lipstick in two phases, first heavily on top of the liner, then blotted with a paper a few times, and then added a light layer for extra shimmer.

I can imagine how gorgeous Dark Night looks on top of black liner, but it should also work on top of blue shades. I'm excited to try out all the combinations!

Adult Uniform

Yesterday we had friends over for dinner. I even took the time to dig up some led candles and put up a light string to make the living room look nice. It was so lovely to just sit, eat and talk, a great way to spend time!

I wore what I jokingly call my adult uniform ;P I got the top and skirt from H&M's sale and they make me look like a real grown-up.

Behold the Ikea folding chairs ;D We put the table together only if there are guests coming, so the chairs are folded away when not in use. And I couldn't find the table cloth I wanted, so this one had to do.

Where The Light Is Look

Is been a while since I ordered a huge pile of Colour Pop eyeshadows, including the Where The Light Is eyeshadow set. Coppers set off my eyes nicely and I've been drawn to them lately. Today I did a look with two shadows from the set, called Kathleenlights and Glow, and one other Colour Pop shadow named Mooning.

Glow is a light matte skintone shadow, I used it as a highlight and at the inner corners. On the lid is Kathleenlights, a gorgeous metallic brass. The crease is done with Mooning, a dark warm brown with copper glitter. I added brown liner, but it doesn't show that much.

And here's two bonus pictures of me and Tirri, because he wanted to sit on my lap when my other half was taking the photos ;P

Black Friday Tips

Tomorrow is Black Friday, which for me means shopping mostly indie make-up. I'm too lazy to write my own list, but here's link to a few collections of interesting links.

I'm most interested in Jeffree Star's matte lipsticks, Geek Chic Cosmetics' discounts, and I'd like to recommend Black Moon Cosmetics, as I'm really fond of their liquid lipsticks.

Here's a link to Phyrra's list with many indie brands and a few others.

Henna also has a good list. It's in Finnish, but the links are to stores that trade in English, so don't worry!

This instagram link has the discount codes for Black Moon Cosmetics. Purgatory is such a gorgeous shade of purple that you should take a look! The bright red lipstick, Sanguis, is out of stock but at this moment all of the others are available.