NARS Blush Bronzer Duo (Orgasm and Laguna) Review

One of the items in my Birthday/Unbirthday Haul!

NARS Blush/Bronzer Duo in the shades Orgasm and Laguna.

I mentioned in my haul post that I had intended on purchasing one of the Ambient Light Blushes by Hourglass, but my Sephora didn't carry them in store. Be as that may, I was still on the hunt for a blush that had a dewier finish and wasn't infested with glitter pixies. The Ammo Palette by Urban Decay has put me off in the realm of glitter, though I should be able to fix that issue with Anastasia Beverly Hills Beauty Genius, both products have been reviewed here in the past if you want to see more on those two products. The links to those reviews will open into a new window. ( Beauty Genius Review and Ammo Palette Review )

With some help from DrugStorePrincess aka Hilary, another beauty blogger, we went through a bunch of blushes and even some bronzers, after discussing the fact that I wanted to try the dewier makeup looks, without appearing orange or like I've been mating with a pixie. After finding glitter galore and mostly matte blushes, she mentioned NARS Laguna and then Orgasm. 

NARS orgasm and even Laguna, have a huge hype behind them. I've read and heard amazing things about this product and brand in general, as well as some who weren't all that impressed. I was extremely skeptical when I heard rave reviews, because lets face it, NARS is a higher end brand, quality yes, but ouch on the wallet. More so if products such are this aren't in your budget. I normally shop for beauty products on a tight budget and I'm a huge sales shopper. I want the most I can get, with quality, with the money I have on hand. But, I had gone to Sephora with the intent on purchasing a single blush for 35.00USD to begin with, I knew my budget and I had a little extra and it was for my birthday. I'm allowed to splurge a little.

NARS Blush Bronzer Duo
Packaging

The packaging is simple. Though, that doesn't mean it isn't nice. I enjoy fancy packaging just as much as something less extravagant. It's heavier than I would have thought it would be, especially in comparison to my travel size Lorac TanTalizer Highlight and Bronzing Duo. My Lorac duo is slightly smaller in size, but the weight difference is noticeable even with both of the products having a mirror. But, the NARS Duos mirror is much bigger and I think even clearer than my Lorac duo. But, I'm in love with the packaging, just for the simplicity of it and that when I hold it, it feels expensive. And that's always nice.

NARS Blush Bronzer Duo
View Of Product In The Pan

The product in it's pan form, doesn't look like anything special. They're nice colors in the pan, but they don't immediately "wow" you if you just give them a quick glance. I know Orgasm comes in a cream or stick form, but of course this is the powder form. I noticed with most of my powder blushes, they do have a, well, powdery smell to them, but this one doesn't. When you go in with a brush to apply this, there literally like, no fall out. Perhaps, the tiniest amount in the pan. You know how you blow off the extra product in the pan if ones powdery or chalky? Don't have to do that with this one.

NARS Laguna (Top) Orgasm (Bottom)
Swatch 1

NARS Laguna (Top) Orgasm (Bottom)
Swatch 2

Swatch time. I have two different swatches here for you. On the left, is my original swatch where you can obviously see the lovely pigmentation of both bronzer and blush. On the right, is the swatch here you can see the glow!
Laguna, I admit does take a little work to get out of the pan. And you do need to build the color up a little. But, this bronzer does have a nice glow without it being overpowering and it doesn't appear orange on me. I can work with it and I've actually been using this, rather than my Matte bronzer since I bought this.
Orgasm...I have found my favorite blush of all time. This is a beautiful pinky peach color, with this golden pink glow. There is a teeny tiny amount of micro glitter in it, but it doesn't get everywhere. How did NARS do that?
I need to know their secret.
It glides onto the cheeks, applies evenly and it's pigmented. It doesn't feel chalky or grainy on the skin. So far it's the best blush I have ever used. And I've used this from the moment I got home with it and literally everyday after.
Just gorgeous.

Price. This duo was 42.00USD at Sephora. The individual full sizes of both Laguna and Orgasm are I want to say around 30.00USD a piece. So for the price of the duo you're getting both of these amazing products for less than if you'd buy them separate. Now, if you have a dark complexion than I do, I'm not the fairest person out there, but I'm darn near close, you may want to skip the Laguna bronzer and stick with just the blush. But if you are fair and can splurge/afford this product, you're looking for a more dewier appearance to your makeup, then I'd recommend this.

 That wraps it up for this review, I'll be posting reviews here and on my tumblr, simplydarkpleasureblog.tumblr.com on the same days and time. So if you'd prefer to follow me exclusively there, then you're more than welcome to do so. As always come find me on Twitter via the widget here or @Blog_SDP where you can get immediate updates on blog posts and general updates from me.

Until next time,
Stay Creative.

Urban Decay Ammo Palette First Impressions and Review

I'm not dead I swear...

Nearly a month worth of unanticipated irritations that I could not have possibly prepared for. Up there on the list was a town wide blackout, where I had no power for nearly a full day in the brunt of winter in Upstate, NY, where we go to work if they're calling for snow that measures in feet and sub-zero temperatures. Like -20F plus windchill. So not fun.

But I'm back with a review. Yay!

Urban Decay Ammo Palette

Urban Decay Ammo Palette Back

The Ammo Palette from Urban Decay, can we just take a moment here and admire this gorgeous packaging? Mosaic purple skull! 

Now, before we really get into the nitty gritty of this review, when I saw this palette online and then in person at Ulta Beauty, it was the packaging that caught my attention. I LOVE and I do mean LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Skulls. Any skulls. If it has a skull on it, I want it.

 But! You should be proud of me, I resisted the urge to pick up this palette just because of the packaging alone and I tell you what! It was hard. 

 After weeks of staring at this palette, I finally broke down and decided that the next chance I had, I was going to get it. Since Valentines Day and my birthday were and are coming up, a gift card or a surprise trip to Ulta Beauty are generally one of the things I do receive, either way the Ammo Palette was coming home with me.

Well...for Valentines Day the husband got me both. The palette that I had been eyeballing and a gift card (I see a Haul post in the near future).

So we've established that the packaging is awesome, even the cardboard holder is pretty darn sturdy too. It also conveniently tells you what shadows and other things you get in the palette. What you actually get are ten eyeshadow shades, a travel size eyeshadow brush (which I have miss-placed so no picture) and a travel size eyeshadow Primer Potion. 

Shadows Starting from Top Left: Smog, Mildew, Oil Slick, Chopper,
Maui Wowie, Shattered, Polyester Bride, Grifter and Sin

Unfortunately, out of all ten shadows you don't have any matte shades. I can live with that. The colors look beautiful in the pan and even swatch nicely on your fingers. Even inside, the packaging is nice, the design that's on the cardboard holder is actually what the inside of the palette looks like. You have all ten shadows lined up in rows of five and below them is the little slot for the eyeshadow brush, which I have again miss-placed. The palette also has a mirror and for obvious reasons I didn't photograph. It's a small mirror, great for travel and it doesn't feel cheap at all.

I used the travel brush a few times, before it was miss-placed. It's an okay brush, but I found it to be rather stiff and hard. It wouldn't be something I'd purposely grab for at all, but nice to have I suppose if you had nothing else. I'd rather use my Real Techniques brushes or some other ones I have from Essence.

Urban Decays original primer potion. Everyone raves about this product and I find that this primer works with almost every eyeshadow I have in my collection. The only shadows I found that creased to high hell with this primer are the Amazonian Clay Eyeshadows by Tarte. Other than those, it works amazing. And the travel size will last you a while, you don't need very much of this product. It's a good primer, enough said.

Top Row

As you can see, these swatched amazingly and these were done without a primer underneath. These are the first shadows by Urban Decay I've ever owned, I've heard so many glorious things about the pigmentation and overall quality of their shadows. I wasn't disappointed. These are so pigmented that it's insane.

Smog- is a coppery, smokey brown color. It's pearly with some micro glitter, but it's so silky and has hardly any fallout if you remember to tap your brush. This one is probably my favorite out of this entire palette.

Mildew- is a light mossy green color, another pearl finish with micro glitter. It is a pretty green, probably a shade I wouldn't use often, if at all. Maybe I'll go out of my norm and play with this color a little more. It has the same texture as smog, so I'd assume that it would have very little to no fallout with proper brush tapping. 

Oil Slick- is a black glitter shadow and by glitter I mean disco ball glittery. I do love this color, but holy molly fall out central! Even with proper tapping of my brush, glitter just falls all over your face. Luckily I always do my foundation after my eyes are finish, but man. The glitter fallout isn't too bad throughout the day, but there is a little bit, so be forewarned. The last thing is that it feels nice on the eyes, but in the pan it's a bit powdery where you do have the blow on it to get rid of the flaked bits from dragging your brush through.

Last Call- is a pearly finish dark rose color. It appears much darker in the pan than it swatches. It does have micro glitter in it as well, but another one that doesn't have much fall out. This was one I thought I wouldn't really like, I don't wear a lot of reds or rose colored shadows, but this color is quite stunning when used in the outer corner of the eye. It's on the warmer wide in color, another reason I thought I may not like it much, but I love the effect it plays with my blue eyes.

Lastly for the top row is Chopper. It's a neutral brown pearly glitter shadow. This is another one with the amount of glitter that is in it, has a decent amount of fallout when applied to the eye. The glitter flakes all over your face. Again, foundation last ladies, when using the glittery ones.

Row 2

Maui Wowie- fun name to say, but meh. I'm not too crazy about the color. I guess its suppose to be a taupe, transition type color, but it looks a bit too yellow on me. It's one of the ones that does have the fallout issue but this one out of the entire ten, even with the fallout issues is my least favorite. Don't have much to say about this one, other than I'd pass on it.

Shattered- is a light powder blue pearl finish shadow and for some reason showed up for green in the picture. No fall out issues, but another color I wouldn't use or haven't found a use for yet. I have blue eyes, so wearing blue shadows washes my eye color out. It appears much more vibrant in the pan, than actually transfers onto the lid, but these shadows are build-able, so you may be able to achieve the vibrancy if it was layered enough. It'd be a shame to not find a use for this shadow, since it is so nice, we'll see. 

Polyester Bride- is a frosty white glitter shadow and another one that the fallout of glitter is a bit of a pain. I love this color for the inner corner of the eye. But the amount of glitter is...too much. Once the glitter is finished flaking off, it is a really pretty pearly shadow.

Grifter- another holy hell fallout glitter shadow. It's a gorgeous lilac purple. So soft and pretty, once most of the glitter again flakes off when its applied. I've used this shadow quite a bit, despite the glitter issue. It's just too pretty to be annoyed with. 

Finally, we have Sin. Sin cool neutral brown. It's a nice transition color for Chopper or a nice all over lid color. A pearl finish and one of the shadows that doesn't have much fallout. 

Final opinions...I do love the Ammo Palette, but I wished I loved it more. The five ultra glitter shadows have a ton of fallout. I can forgive it, maybe if I use them wet, the fallout issue may become less, since I do like most of the shadows that are like this. The other five pearl finishes are amazing, even if there are a few that I may not use, but because they are good shadows, I'll make them work somehow. The palette is 34.00USD at Ulta Beauty and you do get your moneys worth in products and a good range in colors. I'm kind of on the fence about this palette, though I believe if it wasn't for the packaging I'd probably be less in love with it. So personal feelings aside due to packaging love, I'd have to say, save your money and invest in a different palette by Urban Decay or settle for buying the full sized shadows that don't have a ton of glitter in them. 

As always, remember to check out my Influenster profile where I try to update brief reviews daily click the widget on the blog to go directly there (though I've been naughty there too and not updating). Feel free to like me on Facebook at Simply Dark Pleasures, follow me on google plus, Twitter @Blog_SDP,  or send an email at simplydarkpleasures@gmail.com . All links to those are displayed as tabs or there's buttons floating around the site. Check out the "About" section of the blog and the "Review Disclaimer" for more information.

I'll try to be good and post on schedule, I promise. 

Until next time, 

Stay creative. 

Manic Panic Semi Permanent Hair Color Review, Tips and Tricks

Purple Haze by MP

Fuschia Shock by MP

Manic Panic Semi-Permanent Hair Color...one of my favorite things to talk about. You'll see four pictures floating around this post of me, *gasp* with some different variations of Manic Panic colors I've used. I've used quite a few more, but sadly don't have photos of them all, I'm camera shy unless I'm the one taking the photos. I'll leave a list of colors I've used and loved at the end of the post. This isn't going to touch on anything else that MP does, it's just about hair color. 

What is Manic Panic Semi Permanent Hair Color? MP is a vegetable based, conditioning hair color that is Vegan friendly and PPD Free. The companies tag line is actually, "Tested on Celebrities, Not Animals", as an animal lover I can get behind that. If you're looking for vibrant, every color of the rainbow kind of hair color, MP has you covered. 

I'm going to touch on the negatives of this product first to get them out of the way. But some of these can be avoided, are tolerable and I do have some tips for. I'm going to toss a ton of information at you. Please keep in mind this is just my opinion and things I've found through research and trial and error.  

Firstly, it is "Semi-Permanent" which means the color is going to fade as you get your hair wet or wash it. Certain colors do bleed onto your face, towels and your pillow cases, some are worse than others. If you want vibrant color, you HAVE to and I stress HAVE to bleach your hair. You're not going to achieve color payoff by applying this hair color onto brown or any type dark hair. The hair color can give hues of color on dark hair in bright lighting, but that's about it. If you're naturally blond, you may be able to get away with not pre-treating your hair, but it's a big maybe. And the last thing I can think of is the price. The original formula of MP ranges from 9.99USD to 13.99USD in store and on MP's official site. The Amplified version ranges from 12.99USD to 17.99USD in store or on MP's official site. You do get quite a bit of product, but if you have long thick hair, you're going to need more than one tub or bottle, depending on the formula you buy. 

Seems like quite a lot of cons, but I've used MP hair color for nearly 13 years, no joke and I've found some ways to combat some of these issues. 

Addressing the fact that the color IS going to fade in time, there's no getting away from that, but you can prolong the vibrancy of the color by doing these few things. I've had color last 8 weeks or more with only touching up my roots by doing these things.

1- Since I've already mentioned that if you want vibrant color you're going to need to lighten your hair for best results, either at home or have it done by a professional. Don't wash your hair everyday. It's not good for it anyway. Opt for dry shampoos to free your hair of oils and standard yuck. When you do wash your hair, use the coolest water you can tolerate. Heat opens up the hair shaft, which releases hair color.

2- Avoid alcohol and sulfate products. Alcohol and sulfates strip color from your hair when you wash or style. It's especially important with vegetable based hair color.

  

3- Do you're best to avoid "Heat" styling your hair. That includes blow dryers. I know this one is hard, but if you can get away with not using heat to style your hair, then do it. Of course if you do use heat tools, make sure you use a heat protecting product. Again heat will bring slow death to vibrant color. 

4- Add a little bit of the hair color to your bottle of conditioner. That way when you do end up washing your hair, when you condition it you're depositing some of the color back into the hair. It's one of the reasons why I love MP or any conditioning hair color, you can mix it with your regular conditioner and do many things. 

5- During the color process, once you have your hair all coated with goop, use a shower cap and apply heat continuously or periodically throughout development. MP is a conditioning hair color and its safe to apply heat to it while it sits on your hair. Sometimes just a shower cap to lock in the heat that escapes your head is enough to help, but add a little extra with a few minutes here and there with a blow dryer really helps deposit the color. Also you can leave the product in longer than the advised time, I normally leave mine in for an hour or more.

6- Last one for vibrancy...STAY OUT OF CHLORINATED POOLS. I don't mean don't go swimming at all, but DO NOT get your hair wet or say good bye to your vibrant hair. Highly chlorinated water will strip all the color out of your hair. I made this mistake 4 times, only once was on purpose. Buy a swim cap to protect your hair or just don't get your hair wet if you're going to be in chemically treated pools. 

Quick Tip- Pay attention to your hair. I've literally colored my hair every color of the rainbow and did the rainbow in my hair. Certain colors stick to my hair like glue and are murder trying to get out, while other colors fade like lightning no matter what I do. Everyone's chemistry is different and that has a factor when it comes to using any type of hair color.

Hair color bleeding? Not much you can do about it, accept avoid the colors that bleed the most, which unfortunately are anything red based, so all reds, pinks and some purples. If you're like me and love having your hair these colors, invest in dark color pillow cases and be prepared for there to be transfer on your face. If you have white bath towels, bleaching them in the wash will 9 times about of 10 get rid of any stains. If you're really worried about it, use only dark colored towels or ones you really don't care if there's some stains on them. As for face transfer? You're daily facial cleanser should remove it without a problem.

Price..oh boy the price. There is a little bit of difference in cost between to two formulas, for the same amount of product. In comparison to other brands the cost is pretty much even. I've used other vegetable based demi/semi permanent colors and they all do pretty much the same thing, I've just had the most success with MP which is why I recommend it.
MP's original formula has more color options and I've had the color last with no issues. The amplified formula does fade less quickly than the original, but not by much, since I pretty much follow all the tips I've shared here. Though the Atomic Turquoise amplified version is superior to its classic formula, which is the only particular color that I've noticed a huge difference in color pay off, but blue tends to not like to attach itself to my hair. So that's also something to consider, again pay attention to your hair.

And just another little tip, because MP hair color is a conditioning hair color, you can mix them to create custom colors, or even dilute them down with your regular conditioner to make a toned down or even pastel colors. It's another good way to make your own hair toner if you want to be super blond but your hair brasses out. Basic color wheel knowledge and 1 part color to 3 parts conditioner and you have you're toner.

List of My Favorite MP Colors

Fuschia Shock
Raven
Atomic Turquoise (Amplified Formula)
Electric Banana
Electric Lizard
Vampire Red
Ultra Violet (Amplified Formula)
Purple Haze
Cotton Candy Pink (Amplified Formula)

Until Next Time.
Stay Creative.