My Favourite Stand Alone Eyeshadows

Recently Emily from Beauty Broadcast did a video about her favourite 'stand alone' eyeshadows - that is, eyeshadows you can wear on their own. I've been doing this almost exclusively for about a year - certainly during the week when I don't have the time or the inclination to faff around choosing different colours that go together and then blending them just so. One of the reasons I have gravitated away from colour to neutrals is because with neutrals, you can pretty much get away with using any one of them on their own.

Having said that, I do have some particular favourite 'swipe and go' shadows. I haven't included any of the Benefit Creaseless Creams here, though I do use them often and always on their own. But I've talked about them before, so if you want to see swatches of those you can find them here. For the record, the ones I use most often are Flatter Me, RSVP and Pre Nup.

SMH Eyeshadows

I bought some SMH eyeshadows from ACW a couple of months ago and then kind of forgot about them. I happened across one earlier this week and decided to test them out.

From left: Cashmere, Warm & Fuzzy, Sex Kitten

Tag: My 11 Most Reached For Products

 
This was a tag I stole from Jade's video, but she tagged anyone who wanted to do it, so I'm doing it!

It wasn't too hard to pick 11 items, as I've been pretty much using the same stuff over and over lately. I have moved right away from my usual greens, purples and pinks and embraced neutral/nude eyeshadows. There are several reasons for this, including the fact that I'm getting on a bit and my eyelids are more hooded than they used to be (boo-urns), but mainly because it's still dark when I'm getting ready in the mornings and the lighting in my house is shite - everywhere. I just don't have the light I need to be able to apply coloured eyeshadows carefully enough. If I'm a bit half-arsed with neutrals (as I often am), it's not really noticeable.

Anyway, blah blah blah - on to my list. I haven't included any skincare or perfumes as I chop and change those a lot and don't have any real go to favourites at the moment.

Shopping my stash: my current favourite neutral eyeshadows

I've never really been about neutrals all that much - I like purples and greens on my eyes usually, and sometimes delve into pinks and blues when I have a lot of time on my hands for more-careful-than-usual blending. But lately, I've been running late for work pretty much every morning (thank you daylight bloody savings), and I've found it's really easy to just swipe a neutral colour across one's lid and look a bit less like something the cat dragged in.

Oddly enough, I've been coveting the Urban Decay Naked palette since I first saw it, because it really is beautiful, and I was all set to get my travelling friend to buy me one (assuming they were available) when she goes to the US in November. However, in the last week or so I've been having a really good look at the colours and the swatches, and of all the colours, the only two I really, really adore are Toasted - which I already have in a single eyeshadow, and Sin - which I have in the Alice In Wonderland palette (it's called Drink Me, Eat Me in that one). The rest of the shades I can either live without, or I have something else very similar. So I think I'll give that one a miss - at least for now.

Anyway, here are my current favourite neutrals, modelled as usual by Noodle Arms, and swatched over BeneFit Lemon Aid. These are what I've been reaching for over and over in the last few weeks. Tell me, what other neutral shades are in the "must have" category?

Swatches: Urban Decay, wee bit of MAC, Bourjois, NARS

A few weeks ago I was sent a wrinkle-filling product to try out from a website I hang out on quite a lot, and today I had to do "before" and "five minutes after" pics. So while I was waiting the five minutes, I did some quick swatches of recent purchases - not much, because I haven't been spreeing as much lately (except for perfume, which doesn't count).

These are the Urban Decay eyeshadows I bought from ACW a while back.  From left: Illegal, Toasted, Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, Acid Rain, Vert (all taken without flash outdoors swatched over NYX White Eye Base).

And these are just some randoms: From left: NARS Ondine, Bourjois #6 Rose Etastique, MAC Mink & Sable, MAC French Cuff, MAC Of Summer (all taken with flash outdoors and swatched over NYX White Eye Base).

Wasn't that an exciting little diversion in your day?

Swatches: NYX, NARS, Milani

Here are the swatches from the previous post's haul stuff.

First, blushes. From left: Milani Mai Tai, Milani Luminous, NYX Natural, NYX Peach.

And because I forgot to include it in the photo above, NARS Crazed. I can't get over how pigmented this is. I've been practicing with the biggest, fluffiest brush I have putting it on with a really light hand. Still haven't quite got it right, yet. Gorgeous colour, though.

 Lip glosses and lipliners. From left: NYX Mega Shine Gloss in La La, Crystal Soda, Tea Rose, Gold Pink. NARS lip glosses in Harlow, Gothika. NYX Lipliners in Citrine, Dolly Pink and Tangerine.

NYX Tinted Lip Spa in Copacobana and Spirit, and NYX Round Lipstick in Chloe.

NYX Single Eyeshadows, swatched over NYX white eye base. From left: Ocean Frost, Morocco, Deep Purple, Red Bean Pie, Beauty Queen, Sparkle Cedar, Golden.

And NYX Slim Eye Pencils in Sapphire and Emerald City.

NARS Eyeshadows in Edie, Fathom and Baby Girl.

Now, these next ones I bought because I saw swatches of them where they looked like a beautiful sparkly dark black-ish purple and green. When I got them and swatched them on my arm, I just had two different shades of black with a bit of glitter in them, which was kind of annoying. I have been playing around with bases and I think I've figured out how to use them, though the green one (Night Clubbing) still doesn't show in the photo - the third swatch of that one is much more green in real life.

First of all, here is Night Clubbing, from left with no base, NYX white eye base, and NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Horse Radish.

Secondly (and in this picture you can really see the difference), here is Night Fever, from left with no base, NYX white eye base, and NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Oyster (a very light frosty pink).

Pretty!

Final haul for 2009.

I received some of the last of my orders this week (still waiting for a couple - Shop Craze is taking FOREVER, starting to wonder if it's been lost), and these are my last for at least the next three months, as per my resolution post. Such pretty things - I'll do some swatching later when I've had a shower.

First up, taking advantage of the Cherry Culture 20% off Christmas sale:

Then the Nonpareil 20% off Christmas sale:

Recently I made an exciting discovery - Strawberrynet now has some NARS products! This is a brand I've always wanted to try, but it's hard to get hold of in Australia, and the one site I know of that does sell it charges ridiculous prices ($62 for a blush - I don't think so). The Strawberrynet prices are about half of this site's, so I had to take advantage of that. I know the eye colours look quite similar in the photograph, but they're not really.

These are the Everyday Minerals eyeshadows that I have already swatched. I wish they would stop coming out with all of these lovely colours - I thought I was done with this lot! I have some more coming too - Makeup BFF J got me this for Christmas.

And finally, some more BPAL imps, because one can never have too many perfumes:

So, still to come: BPAL Christmas present haul from The Photographer (come onnnnnn), a small order from Smart Poppy (just a couple of lip and eyebrow pencils), the hopefully-not-missing Shop Craze order of NYX eyeshadows and lipsticks, a couple of small decants from The Perfumed Court, and my share of a group order from ELF. And then I'm done-diddily-done. *sob*