OCC Cosmetic Colour Pencil: Black Dahlia

I feel like I was the only one having trouble with my Black Dahlia lip tar, and couldn't find a pencil dark enough to help out with the application.  Then OCC released their cosmetic colour pencils, with a shade to match my lip tar!

OCC Cosmetic Colour Pencil: Black Dahlia

"Black Dahlia" is a cool-toned dark red violet. This is definitely the darkest cruelty free cosmetic pencil  I know of that isn't black.

PRODUCT: Meant to be used anywhere on the face, this pencil has a comfortably creamy texture. It wasn't creamy to the point of feeling like a lipbalm, but I didn't have any problems with it skipping or having uneven color when applied all over my lips.  It prevented my lip tar from feathering, but didn't make it wear any longer-- after about four hours, my lip tar became uneven to the point I had to take it off.

OCC Cosmetic Colour Pencil: Black Dahlia

PACKAGING: For some reason, the pencil seems really small, until I looked at the numbers.  (Assuming these numbers are all fill weights)

OCC Cosmetic Colour Pencil: .08oz

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Lip Pencil: .04oz

MAC Lip Pencil: .05 oz

PRICE: $16! Compared to UD's $20 and MAC's $15, I'd say this is a pretty good deal.

All in all, OCC's Cosmetic Colour Pencil was precisely what I was looking for: a super dark color to match my Black Dahlia lip tar (and my other dark lipsticks!) that wasn't dry and prevented feathering. When I first swatched this in Sephora, the pencil seemed really dry, which prevented me from buying it at first. However, I figured it was just dry because it was a tester, and I was right! Just goes to show that sometimes first impressions can be deceiving.

You don't have to take my word for it! OCC Cosmetic Colour Pencil in Black Dahlia (and 11 other colors!) 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: Sephora Collection Retractable Brow Pencil- Waterproof

As someone with brows that naturally light and unfortunately sparse, I find it's really important to fill them in, lest I look something like this:

Usually my hair is dyed jet black, and I'd fill in my eyebrows to match, using the following:

• Kat Von D's eyeshadow in Lucifer
• Kat Von D's angled eyebrow brush
• Anastasia clear brow wax

However, I've let my hair go a little lighter, and those black brows are now WAY too harsh. Enter Sephora's Retractable Brow Pencil.

COLOR: I bought this in 04 Midnight Brown, which is the darkest available. It's a little lighter than my dyed hair color, but not so light that it looks blonde.  I think it works a little better for my "lighter" looks, as I find myself adding some darker color to my brow when I'm doing something super bright or dark on my eye.

PACKAGING: As the title implies, this is a retractable pencil.  I have had no problems with the twist-up mechanism.  At the opposite end, there is a little brow comb, which I controls product distribution better than a mascara spoolie brush.  The overall pencil is a great size for my makeup bag-- not so tiny that it will get lost, but not so huge that it won't fit.  The downside to the smaller size is that it only contains 0.003oz of product.

Comb end 

"Pencil" end

PRODUCT: The product itself is slightly creamy, so it glides on really well without having to do 1000 strokes over the same area for something to show up.  It's also very skinny, so I can get super defined eyebrows without going overboard (which sometimes happened with the shadow + KvD brush).  I haven't done any waterproofing tests with it, but it has been lasting on my sweaty face during this stupid hot summer.

OVERALL: At a $12 pricetag, this is definitely a worthy buy.  I do wish it came in one shade darker for when my hair is darker, because I can't see myself going back to eyeshadow for my brows after this!

My sad, natural eyebrow.

Filled in!

HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO ANASTASIA'S BROW WIZ?

When I bought Sephora's retractable eyebrow pencil, it was in the running against Anastasia's very similar Brow Wiz product.  The differences in Brow Wiz are: it contains more product (0.08 oz), has a much drier formula, has a spoolie brush on the end, and costs $20.  I figure the price increase has something to do with the fact that it has more product, but the dry formula was the deal breaker.  Granted, I only did comparison swatches with testers, so there's a chance that Anastasia's tester had dried out from everyone using it.  Regardless, I didn't mind saving $8!

Don't take my word for it-- The Sephora Collection Retractable Brow Pencil- waterproof is available now!