Look of the day 4/4/2015

Last week I cut my hair a bit shorter and it was so happy that it made me want to take selfies.  If you're interested in my vanity, feel free to follow me on Instagram @landofladythings!

FACE:
Illamasqua skinbase white mixed with KVD foundation L45

Too Faced Absolutely Flawless concealer- Vanilla
Dita Von Teese for Art Deco blush- pale peach (the number wore off :( )
Illamasqua blush- Katie
Meow Cosmetics Pampered Puss Foundation- Sleek Mau

EYES:
Melt Cosmetics Lovesick stack- Amelie, Lovesick, Fixated
Kat Von D Ludwig palette- Tequila
Kat Von D Ladybird-  Vespertine,  Renholder
Physician's Formula Eye Booster- Ultra Black
Urban Decay Perversion Mascara
Urban Decay Anti-Aging Primer Potion

BROWS:
Tarte EmphasEYES- Rich Brown
Blinc Brow Mousse- Dark Brown

LIPS:
Bite Beauty Agave Lip mask
Kat Von D Painted Love Lipstick- Ritual, Lolita

Kat Von D Chrysalis Palette

New for summer/14 is the Kat von D Chrysalis palette.  Sephora describes this as "a cool-toned eyeshadow palette," but it's more of a well-rounded palette. Read on for more info!

Top: Lifelike
Bottom (L-R): Hybrid Moments, Mezzanine, Transition

Lifelike: Matte cream with slight pink undertone

Hybrid Moments: In pan, this looked like eggplant pearl. Swatched, this was a matte eggplant with a red undertone

Mezzanine: Metallic medium pinkish purple with purple and blue glitter

Transition: Shimmering Mauve

L-R: Lifelike, Hybrid Moments, Mezzanine, Transition

Top: Lunar Lights
Bottom (L-R): Glasswing, Melancholia, Black Milk

Lunar Lights: Frosty white gold

Glasswing: Matte butterscotch.

Melancholia: Metallic pewter.

Black Milk: Matte pale warm-toned grey. This was a surprise favorite for me-- just enough warmth, with a buttery texture and excellent color payoff.

L-R: Lunar Lights, Glasswing, Melancholia, Black Milk

Top: Lucid
Bottom: Graphic Nature, Entombed, Tornay

Lucid: Satin lilac pink with iridescent glitter

Graphic Nature: Pearl graphite grey

Entombed: Metallic medium blue

Tornay: Matte navy blue

L-R: Lucid, Graphic Nature, Entombed, Tornay

PIGMENTATION: No pigmentation issues in this palette.

PRODUCT: No issues with application for any of the shadows, and most of them had excellent textures. Hybrid Moments and Tornay had slightly drier textures.  The former had to be built up for the swatch, but I had no issues with application.

PACKAGING: Cardboard packaging with magnetic closure

PRICE: $46

All in all, Chrysalis is a mix of warm- and cool-toned shades, with great color payoff and excellent textures. If you love playing with color, but prefer warmer colors, you will not be disappointed with this palette!

As always, you don't have to take my word for it, Kat Von D's Chrysalis palette is available now on Sephora.

Bonus!! Here's a look I did recently using this palette.

Used on my lid: Glasswing, Melancholia, Graphic Nature, Tornay, Lunar Lights

Kat Von D Monarch Palette

Kat von D's Monarch palette is a collection of 12 warm neutral leaning colors housed in a slim cardboard case.

Top: Entomology, Bottom (L-R) Wrath, Papilio, Summerfly

Entomology: Matte cream with yellow undertone
Wrath: Rust with faint copper sparkle. Cleopatra is similar, but matte
Papilio: Medium brown with soft copper shimmer
Summerfly: Rich 24k gold with gold glitter. One of my favorites!

L-R Entomology, Wrath, Papilio, Summerfly

Top: Telepathy, Bottom (L-R) Killing Jar, Delaney, Vanish

Killing Jar: Metallic rose gold

Delaney: Metallic taupe

Vanish: Matte tan. This was soooo buttery!

Telepathy: Metallic champagne with soft pink undertone

L-R Killing Jar, Delaney, Vanish, Telepathy

Top: Tiny Death, Bottom (L-R) Disintegration, Shadow Box, Dead Head

Tiny Death: Pale butterscotch with iridescent glitter. The glitter in this shade had a bit of fallout.
Disintegration: Antique shimmery bronze
Shadow Box: Rich matte chocolate brown
Dead Head: Officially the butteriest, most pigmented matte black I own.

L-R Tiny Death, Disintegration, Shadow Box, Dead Head

PIGMENTATION: No issues with any of the shades. All were densely pigmented.

PRODUCT: Other than the aforementioned fallout issue with Tiny Death, the only other problem was some shadows were a bit powdery. Because I tap off excess before I apply my eyeshadow, I didn't notice any fallout due to the softer texture of some of the shades.

Top row (L-R) Entomology, Telepathy, Tiny Death
Bottom Row (L-R) Wrath, Papilio, Summerfly, Killing Jar, Delaney, Vanish, Disintegration, Shadow Box, Dead Head

PACKAGING: As I mentioned in my Esperanza review, I am not a fan of the cardboard packaging of this year's palettes. However, this does have a decently-sized mirror and isn't too large for my bag.

PRICE: $46 

All in all, if you're a fan of neutral shades, but want some good quality mattes in your palette, check out the Monarch palette.

Of course you don't have to take my word for it. Kat von D's Monarch palette is available now at Sephora.

Kat Von D Esperanza palette

Hi! Long time no talk! Before we start, just wanted to note I'm trying out the blogger app on my phone to post this review. I have so many reviews that are waiting in the wings, but it's always a process I rarely have time for. Hopefully this way I can get more reviews out to you guys! The photos aren't edited in this post, bc i forgot i could do that on my phone, but they will be in the future! I'd love to hear what you think!  Onto the review...

New for spring '14 from Kat Von D is the Esperanza palette. Housed within its no-frills cardboard packaging are eight shadows of varying textures. All are incredibly pigmented and most are buttery smooth.

Top to bottom: Placebo, Galore, Dayglo, Selena

Selena: Satin medium bright purple with larger iridescent glitter. Did have some glitter fall-out with this one.

Dayglo (transformer shade): shimmering white with pale yellow shift. 

Galore: pale peach with soft shimmer. Would be great as a highlight color!

Placebo: Matte bright orange-pink. This looks almost neon in daylight.

Top to bottom: Dog Roses, South, Archangel, Santeria

Santeria: Shimmery dark blue-grey with pale blue micro glitter. This one had a drier texture than the rest of the bunch.

Archangel: Satin super pale seafoam green with fine light pink, purple, and light blue glitter.

South: Matte pale beige.

Dog Roses: Metallic bronze with fine bronze glitter.

Something to note is that the Esperanza retails for $36 and doesn't come with an eyeliner or anything (unlike some of the past few palettes from the brand that have retailed for $35) and comes in cardboard packaging (unlike the metal packaging of the past few non-holiday palettes). For me, the only weak part of this palette is the packaging. Cardboard packaging just seems kind of cheap to me, and considering I normally carry palettes with me, this is probably going to get damaged pretty quickly. However, a plus is how big the mirror is in here. If the packaging suffered for the quality of the shadows, then I am willing to take whatever cardboard packaging comes my way, because the shadows are EXCELLENT!

You don't have to take my word for it. Kat Von D's Esperanza palette is available now from Sephora.

Review: Kat Von D Ladybird True Romance Eyeshadow Palette

Quick story: When Urban Decay's Naked Basics palette came out, I was pretty excited because it was a palette comprised entirely of matte shadows, but the colors were so blah.  I never ended up buying it, and boy howdy am I glad I didn't.  Dare I say it, this is my HG matte palette.

L-R: Für Elise, Vespertine, Renholdër, Siouxie Sioux

Für Elise- Matte plum
Vespertine- Matte pale peaches & cream
Renholdër- matte taupe (leans more grey)
Siouxie-Soux - Blackened blue-grey with faint blue sparkle

L-R: Unrequited, Harlow, Wolf, Cleopatra

Unrequited - Matte nude with peachy undertone
Harlow- Matte sandy brown with a hint of olive
Wölf- Matte medium brown with red undertone
Cleopatra - Matte rust (best performing shade)

Immortal Love Autograph Pencil Eyeliner

Immortal Love

Immortal Love (Autograph Eyeliner Pencil) - Slightly blackened dark brown. This had excellent color payoff in one stroke, and a creamy texture.  Once it dried, it stayed put!

Pigmentation/Product: All 8 shadows and the eyeliner are decently pigmented.  I feel like, in past KvD palettes, there's always (at least) one dud.  Für Elise was the "worst" performing shade of the bunch, but it really wasn't bad.  It was a tad dry and I had to work with it a smidge more than the other 7 to build up the swatch (2 passes instead of one!).  I've used about half the palette thus far, and of the shades I used (Unrequited, Harlow, Cleopatra, Vespertine), next to no powder was kicked up with my brush.  Pretty awesome for how buttery soft these shadows felt when I swatched them!

Packaging:  This is the same metal case of the last few palettes, and just like her other metal palettes, the lid doesn't stay up on its own.

Price:  $36.  

All in all, Ladybird is my new favorite KvD palette.  If you're into pigmented (mostly) warm neutrals, then you might love this Ladybird too.

As always, you don't have to take my word for it! Kat von D's Ladybird palette is available now at Sephora.

Kat Von D: Holiday 2012 collection

Just came across what's new from KvD for Holiday 2012.  In addition to an eyeliner and mini lipstick set, we have two new eyeshadow quads, as well as a new palette.  Read on for details!

True Romance Eyeshadow Palette in Star-Crossed- $20

This set contains:
4 x 0.05 oz eye shadow in:
- Hyperballad (pearlized silver)
- Scandinavian (pearlized taupe)
- Oceansize (pearlized blue)
- Ville (pearlized eggplant purple) 

True Romance Eyeshadow Palette in Starstruck- $20

This set contains:
4 x 0.05 oz eye shadow in:
- Fallen (pearlized deep bronze)
- Pagan Poetry (pearlized warm chocolate)
- Unrequited (pearlized yellow gold)
- Hermit (pearlized wine red) 

Starry-Eyes Autograph Pencil Set- $49

This set contains:

10 x 0.02 oz eye liner in:
- Runaway (plum)
- Homie (shimmering violet)
- Rhi-Venge (electric blue)
- Eyegasm (jade green)
- Fool's Gold (gold)
- Napolitano (light brown)
- Immortal Love (dark coffee)
- Puro Amor (jet black)
- Black Metal Lover (matte black with silver micro-glitter)
- Platinum (silver)

I think this one will be mine.  The Autograph eyeliners are REALLY good, and there are some colors that are exclusive to the set.  At first, I thought the set was a little expensive, until I did the math-- all things considered, it's worth about $90.

Star Kissed Lipstick Set- $28

This set contains:

3 x 0.042 oz Painted Love lipstick in:
- Rosary (burgundy red)
- Lolita (dusty rose)
- Underage Red (bright crimson)
3 x 0.042 oz Foiled Love lipstick in: - Beranice (metallic poppy red)
- Forever & Ever (metallic golden peach)
- Valentine (metallic hot pink) 

Starry Eyes Makeup Palette- $49

This set contains:
- 4 x 0.25 oz eye shadow trios in Felix, Helmüt, Lohnër, Requiem *
- Full size Everlasting Love Liquid Lipstick in Lolita
- Full size Foiled Love Liquid Lipstick in Adora 

*The eyeshadow trios all consist of one pearl, one matte, and one glitter shade.  Not sure if I'm into this, but I'm definitely curious to see this one when it comes out.  The outer packaging is, however, AWESOME.

Truthfully, this collection isn't all that exciting to me, but probably because I just made two big makeup purchases and I'm still excited about them (more on that to come).  Anything floating your boat?  Let me know in the comments!

The Kat Von D Holiday collection will be available soon on Sephora.com.

Review: Kat Von D Truth Palette

Hi!

Today I'm going to *finally* review the latest palette offering from Kat Von D, "Truth." With the exception of the purpley-plum shadow, most of the palette consists of spring-appropriate pastels. Honestly, not really what I was expecting, but sometimes surprises are good, right?

All the colors were swatched over Urban Decay's Primer Potion.

L-R:

Sugar Skull pale pastel yellow shimmer(this appeared in last spring's Memento Mori palette)

Long Distance lime green shimmer with gold micro glitter

Snake Eyes apple green with gold pearl

Finland (cream) shimmery teal blue

L-R:

Prague dark plummy purple with reddish plum micro shimmer

Galeano (repeat from the Beethoven palette) shimmery warm-toned lavender

Rehab Ultra shimmery pale taupe

Sister Matte pinky-peach (I'm super fair, so it barely showed up on me)

I'm really on the fence about this palette. There are some really lovely colors (Long Distance, Prague, and Finland are my favorites), but there is one I don't quite know what to do with (Sister- i'm looking at you!). Generally the textures in these shadows aren't as good as previous KvD palettes. They're all REALLY powdery, which in turn causes a lot of fall out (you can even see it in the swatch of Prague!). I've also had problems with blending- especially with Rehab. It pretty much disappears/gets patchy if you try to work with it too much. For now, I would say to skip this, unless you are a complete makeup master. With all this said, I'm clinging to hope I can make these shadows work. They swatched well, but are a bit wonky in practice. Honestly I've only had the time/patience to practice a few looks so I'm going to keep working with these and try to figure out these bad boys. If my feelings change, I'll post a follow up review and beg for KvD's forgiveness haha!

Don't take my word for it-- you can purchase it at Sephora.