My New Inglot Eyeshadow Palette

As you saw in my Amsterdam shoplog, I bought a new Inglot eyeshadow palette. I already have one 5 eyeshadow palette which I purchased in September. Having loved this palette so much, I knew I wanted more. I don’t have that many bright colors of eyeshadow and since brights and pastels are in style for the next couple of seasons I thought I’d make that part of my palette. Just like last time, the service was great and I went home a very satisfied customer. This is the palette I bought:

As you can see I went with a 10 pan square eyeshadow palette that features mostly matte shades. There’s one sparkly sea foam green color, a shiny lavender and a shiny white/ silvery highlight. All other colors are matte and bright. In the top let you can see the color I selected to be my main crease color. I already knew I wanted mostly matte shades which is exactly why I went to Inglot. Their matte shades are amazing: very creamy, not chalky and with great pigmentation. My goal was to go home with a complete palette that would nicely tie in with the one I already have. Click here to see the other palette. Let’s have a look at a close up of the colors.

Matte 239 & AMC Shine 32

The first two colors from the top left corner: a matte cool gray tone and a sparkly sea foam green color. The gray will function mostly as a crease color. The sparkly color goes nicely with the other green color in the palette.

Matte 345 & Matte 361

These colors are where it gets fun! A minty sea foam green color which is completely matte and a bright coral color, also matte. Seeing these colors just makes me happy instantly!

Matte 388 & Pearl 429

These bottom left corner colors are both different shades of lavender. Matte 388 is a very bright lavender which is a bright blue with a purple undertone. Pearl 429 is a shimmery color that is a perfect pastel lavender. These two shades complement each other nicely.

Matte 379 & Matte 334

These shades are both more purple and also complement each other. I would call Matte 379 a true lavender. This is the exact color of the flowers! The purple color is more like a dark lilac. I originally wanted a pastel lilac color instead of the purple, but they had run out. Fortunately for me, this color works better in the palette than the pastel lilac one I originally selected. I can always mix in some white if I want to make it an actual pastel.

Matte 364 & Pearl 453

The two lightest shades in the palette: a soft yellow color and a shiny silvery white highlight.

I already mentioned the pigmentation being great, but you will of course only believe me when you see for yourself. So here are some swatches:

Matte 239 AMC Shine 32, Matte 345, Matte 361, Matte 364

Matte 388, Pearl 429, Matte 379, Matte 334, Pearl 453

As you can see the pigmentation is fantastic. You can clearly see how creamy these shadows are: they slide onto your skin like butter. Especially soft yellow tones are difficult to get opaque enough, but just look at how good that came out! Between this new palette and my old one I will be able to create many looks. As the palettes are very durable and sturdy they are also perfect for taking with you on the go. All I know is that with this palette I am ready for spring.

Do you have anything by Inglot? What do you think of these colors?

Make up collection: Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

It’s here. It’s finally here! The other week the Urban Decay Naked 2 eyeshadow palette was introduced to the Dutch market without as much as a whisper. No one knew when or even if it would show up in our tiny country and then suddenly it did. So when I went to The Hague last week, I decided to check the Sephora there to see whether they had it stocked and they did. Since my plan was to pick it up in the UK next week, I thought: why not buy it right now as I’m going to spend the money anyway. This is what the palette looks like:

As you can see the palette comes with a mini lipgloss which I have yet to try and a double ended synthetic brush. The brush isn’t ideal when you store brushes the way I do, but I think it will be ideal to take with me when traveling because you get two brushes in one go. Urban Decay brushes are good brushes. I have one brush that came with the original Naked palette and love that so I’m sure these will work fine as well. Let’s move on to the colors shall we?

Just like in the original Naked palette there aren’t many matte shades, but the prettiness of the colors make up for that. One thing that immediately stands out is the fact that the colors are more cooler toned than the original palette and there are also fewer darker colors. That suits me just fine as I never use very dark colors for my eyelooks as it can make my eye sockets look quite dead.

So far I have used the palette a number of times to try out some combinations. I tried out a taupy-brown look using tease, suspect and busted and I tried a gray look with verve, pistol and blackout. One thing I love about this palette is that it has colors with a purple undertone and that it comes with some more taupes and grays. Those are my favorite colors for creating looks and so I really do think that this palette is a good addition to the original Naked palette which was more brown/ bronzy oriented. Now on to close ups and swatches and what the colors look like in my opinion:

From left to right:

• Foxy: matte, soft yellow shade which you can barely see against my skin. Great as a highlight on your brow bone.
• Half baked: already part of the first Naked palette AND the Sustainable palette. Great golden brown shade for all over the lid or to add some shine in the middle of your eyelid.
• Booty call: shimmery cream colored highlighter.
• Chopper: coppery color with a pink/ rose undertone. This looks best all over your lid or on your lower lash line.
• Tease: matte soft brown color with a mauve undertone. Can be worn as an all over lid color or soft crease color.
• Snakebite: dark brown with golden shimmer. Good crease color or for your lower lashline. Can also be used to create a subtle smokey eye.

From left to right:

• Suspect: shimmery taupe/brown color. Again a solid all over lid color, but I also like this on my lower lash line or in the crease with very subtle looks.
• Pistol: shimmery silver gray color. I wore this as a crease color the other day, but would also work on the lower lash line or all over the lid.
• Verve: light gray color with lots of shimmer. This is quite possibly my favorite shade in the palette. Again: an all over lid color or for the lower lash line.
• YDK: shimmery rose gold color. Also featured in the Sustainable palette. I would preferably wear this all over the lid.
• Busted: dark brown color with a dark brown undertone and some shimmer to it. Good for creating a crease, outlining your outer V area and dark smokey looks.
• Black out: also a great crease color as it is a matte black without any shimmer. Best color in the palette for a true smokey eye. Also feature in the Urban Decay 15th Anniversary palette.

As you can see from the swatches, the pigmentation is amazing, just like with other Urban Decay palettes. I’m thinking that Urban Decay is quickly becoming my favorite eyeshadow brand as their eyeshadow palettes are just the best. This is now my 5th Urban Decay eyeshadow palette and not a single one of them has let me down so far. The eyeshadows are smooth without being powdery and especially in this palette the shadows do not suffer from a tremendous amount of fall out.

I already own the original Naked palette too and was skeptical as to whether I would ‘need’ this one as well. After seeing some reviews and comparisons though, I knew that it was different from the first one and since this girl loves her wearable nude shades of eyecolor I thought it would still make a good addition to my make up collection. I will show you my original Naked palette some time in the future as part of my make up collection series. For good comparisons of the original Naked palette and the Naked 2 palette I would like to refer you to this website (Dutch), or you can watch this video (English).

What are your favorite types of eye shadow to wear? Nude colors like I do, or do you prefer a pop of color?

Make up collection: small eyeshadow palettes

Another part of my make up stash: my small eyeshadow palettes. Next to nail polish, eyeshadow is quite possibly my favorite make up related item. So I have tons. I already showed you my MAC eyeshadow palette a while ago, and today it’s time for more eyeshadow! I will be showing you my smaller eyeshadow palettes, meaning: 2 – 5 shadows in one container. I don’t have that many duos, trios, quads and quintets but that doesn’t mean they aren’t pretty! Let’s have a look shall we?

All of my small eyeshadow palettes together

I have a bit of everything here: cheap, drugstore, middle range and high end. I will tell you about my favorites along the way.

Drugstore palettes 1: NYX Shimmer/ Peach/ Copper, Catrice Tickled Pink, Catrice Mustard & Custard, MAX Grey Combo, MAX Black & Beige, Revlon Berry Bloom, Rimmel English Rose.

Apart from the Rimmel palette these are all cheap palettes. My favorite must be the Rimmel one. I bought that because of that gorgeous rose color in the middle. The NYX trio is perfect for traveling s those three colors are great for a complete and neutral eyelook. The MAX eyeshadows are the cheapest in the bunch and they actually have some great pay off, despite costing me only a few euros per palette at a local discount store.

Drugstore 2: Bourjois Or Baroque, Bourjois Vert Trendy, Sephora Pin Up Show, Sephora Cocktail Show, The Body Shop Shimmer Cube in Green Light, The Body Shop Shimmer Cube in Chocolate Box

The Bourjois trios are some very handy trios to use. I don’t use green or gold all that often, but when I do these are pretty much the colors I go for. I love how the gold colors have this antiqued look to them. The gold one is also pretty rare: I only saw this one once at a Sephora and I have never seen the same one since. The Sephora shadows are nice too, but my favorite one of the two is Pin Up Show, especially that burgundy color is gorgeous. The Body Shop Shimmer Cubes are very nice too, but very shimmery (duh!) so I wouldn’t use these colors for a complete eyelook, but the shimmery turquoise and bronzy brown colors are some of my favorites.

High end 1: Benefit Smokin’ Eyes palette, Make Up Designory palette, Inglot Freedom System palette

This picture features some of my favorite shadows as well! The Benefit kit is my go to palette for traveling. It’s so handy and great for a quick smokey eye look. The Make Up Designory quad doesn’t have a name, but I did buy it as such. It was part of a special Valentine’s Day kit which included a make up bag and a lipstick. The Inglot palette is quite brilliant. I definitely want more of this! The colors are great and because you can decide on your own colors you can do whatever you like.

High end 2: Dior 5 Couleurs in Midnight Butterfly, Graphic Lights, and Twilight and a mini in Élégante

There was a time, before I discovered MAC, Inglot and other make up brands that these were my favorite eyeshadows. They don’t look all that used on this picture, but trust me these have been through quite a bit. I love Dior eyeshadow. They feel a bit chalky at times, but that was perfect as I used these without a primeIr most of the time and they would stay put for a long time even without a primer. The pigmentation is great and the colors are fun. I believe all of these have been discontinued by now. Graphic Lights has been for sure as that was a limited edition from a summer collection.

What’s your favorite small eyeshadow palette? Mine: my M.U.D. palette, Inglot palette and Dior!

Make Up Collection: MAC eyeshadow palette

Just the other day I realized that it has been a while since I posted pictures of part of my make up collection. Today, we are moving on to my favorite make up product: eye shadows. Since I have quite a few eye shadows (I have so many that I do not want to count) I will cut this up into sections. Right now, I’ll be showing you my MAC eyeshadow palette including some swatches.

My MAC eyeshadow palette

When I first found out about the amazing color selection that MAC has, I immediately knew that I would want to get enough colors (and then some) to easily fill up one of their pro palettes. So I immediately went with that. Rather than buying the eyeshadows in a ready made container, I bought the pan form. Not only is it cheaper per eye shadow, it is also easier to store this than 10 different eye shadow containers. This is what the interior looks like:

As you can see I popped out the insert. There are several youtube videos out there showing you how to do this. When you take out the insert, your palette will hold 26 instead of 15 eye shadows. It does make the palette unsuitable for traveling as your shadows can now shift around, but since I just keep this at home most of the time, it suits me just fine. I put a colored piece of paper on the inside of the lid so I wouldn’t have to stick the stickers on the lid itself. The stickers list the names of the shadows. I like keeping an overview of what I have.

Now let’s have a look at the shadows up close:

Pinks

Top: Swish (frost) & Paradisco (frost)

Bottom: Expensive pink (veluxe pearl) & Sushi flower (satin)

Neutrals 1 & Greens 1

Top: Arena (satin) & Jest (frost)

Bottom: Lucky Green (veluxe pearl) & Humid (frost)

Neutrals 2, Greens 2 & Browns 1

Top: Naked Lunch (frost), Nylon (frost), Dazzle Light (veluxe pearl)

Bottom: Green Smoke (lustre) & Amber lights (frost)

Purples

Top: Shale (frost), Blackberry (matte), Sketch (velvet)

Bottom: Yoghurt (matte), Star Violet (veluxe pearl), Cranberry (frost)

Browns 2

Coppering (veluxe pearl), Antiqued (veluxe pearl), Satin Taupe (frost)

Browns 3

Top: Mulch (velvet) & Woodwinked (veluxe pearl)

Bottom: Retro Speck (lustre) & Vanilla (velvet)

As you can see I have categorized the shadows by color, but also by highlight color. My main highlight colors in this palette are Yoghurt, Vanilla and Dazzle Light. Vanilla goes nicely with greens and browns, while Yoghurt goes better with pinks and purples. The top row is devoted to overall lid colors and Dazzle Light is a great inner corner highlight. The rest of the colors are a mixture of bright, light and dark shades so I can work with several colors in a similar color range to create complete eyelooks.

My favorite colors in the palette: humid, star violet, woodwinked, mulch and paradisco. Why? Well you’ll know as soon as you see swatches.

Top row: swish, paradisco, arena, jest, naked lunch, nylon, dazzle light

As you can see these colors are all quite light or on the sheer side. They make for some great overall lid colors as they are too shimmery for my taste to be used as a highlight.

Second row: expensive pink, sushi flower, lucky green, humid, green smoke, amber lights

Colors! The only color in this row that takes some time to build up is Green Smoke, but that is also a lustre, and lustres are notorious for being sheer and a bit more difficult to work with.

Third row: shale, blackberry, sketch, coppering, antiqued, mulch, woodwinked

Coppering looks more orange on the swatch but that’s my camera for you. In real life it’s more red and a perfect match with Antiqued. Mulch is a great dark brown and Sketch is perfect for a plum/ purple smokey eye.

Bottom row: yoghurt, star violet, cranberry, satin taupe, retrospeck, vanilla

I swear to God that I swatched Vanilla, but you can hardly see anything. Anyway, star violet really pops up and I just love that color. There’s purple, a hint of pink and even a bit of red in it. Cranberry looks more red on the picture, but it has a very nice purple sheen to it in real life.

So there you have it, my MAC eyeshadow palette. Now don’t go thinking that I bought all of this in one go. It took me almost 1,5 years to fill it up. This is not something you collect overnight and there are so many colors to choose from. If you feel the offer of different shades is daunting, have a look at MAC’s American website. They list all the colors available and you can look up which colors you like. That’s what I did!

Do you have any MAC eye shadows?

Reminder: Sleek I-Divine Au Naturel Giveaway

Just to give you a heads up: You can still enter to win the Sleek I-Divine Au Naturel palette from the Nude collection. The contest runs until Wednesday! Read the original post on how you can enter: http://bit.ly/qbLjud. Good luck everyone!

This can be yours! All you have to do is enter!

Have you entered yet?

Review: Sleek Nude Collection Au Natural I-Divine Palette (incl. surprise)

As you could read yesterday, I promised to do a review on the latest release by Sleek: the I-Divine palette from the Nude Collection. I have several Sleek palettes and love them. They are great quality eyeshadows at a reasonable price (I paid less than 10 euros for my palette) and they have a great color selection. This one is no different.

Above you’ll find the pictures that I also posted yesterday. The packaging is nice and well… sleek (pun intended) and the palette comes with a large mirror and an applicator. You get 12 eyeshadows, all in very neutral, warm tones. Here’s what Sleek says:

Sleek MakeUP’s Nude collection wraps up your autumn beauty look in one warm, earthy and wearable collection. The Au Naturel i-Divine provides an array of matte and pearlescent eye shadows providing a subtle yet contoured effect for day, that can be built up for a smoky glamorous effect using velvety browns and shimmering fawns.

And I have to agree: there is a very nice selection of matte shades: 8 out of 12 are matte. The top row is rather light, but makes for some great highlight colors/ overall lid colors, whereas the bottom row are darker colors that make for looks with a bit more oomph.

The shadows are all very velvety in structure and are well pigmented. Look at these swatches I made:

Top row (f.l.t.r.): nougat, nubuck, cappucino, honeycomb, toast, taupe

As you can see these are light colors and on my light skin they don’t really stand out that much. I made these swatches without a base though and you can still see them after only one rub of a finger. Except for Taupe on the far right these are all matte. My faves from this row? Taupe & Nubuck.

Bottom row (f.l.t.r.): conker, moss, bark, mineral earth, regal, noir

Aren’t these amazing? Again, this is one swipe, no base. Only Bark, Regal & Noir are matte. Noir features in all Sleek palettes and is very well pigmented. I love the look of these colors: perfect for fall, with very earthy tones. Especially Conker & Moss remind me of leaves turning color and are two of my favorites together with Mineral Earth and Regal in this row.

But hold up! What’s this? No, your eyes are not deceiving you! I didn’t buy just one of these, I got two. Again, if you read this blog you know I promised a giveaway to celebrate the 1st anniversary of this blog. Well, I’m not one for breaking promises, so here it goes: I will be giving away one (1) Sleek I-Divine Nude Collection Au Natural I-Divine Palette.*

What do you have to do to win? Very simple:

1.) You copy/ paste this message on twitter: RT @indiequeen84 Sleek I-Divine palette Nude Collection Au Naturel giveaway! Enter here: http://bit.ly/qbLjud (scroll down)

2.) You leave a comment below saying you would like to enter the contest and you provide a link to your tweet.

That’s it! I will use random.org to pick a winner. You have until Wednesday the 21st of September 3 PM CET to enter. I will be home a little later that day and pick the winner, who will be announced in a post on Thursday the 22nd of September. The winner should send me an email within 24 hours after the announcement. If you don’t contact me on time, I will pick another winner using random.org.

* I took a picture of two palettes so you know I bought two. The winner will receive a fresh palette. I only opened it to check whether none of the shadows broke in the mail. The palette send out will not have been swatched, nor touched in anyway!

Q: Are you entering?