Morphe Brushes 35W review and swatches

When I first heard of Morphe Brushes palettes, it reminded me of the Coastal Scents 88 palette except that it is much bigger in sizes. They was being talked about a lot on Youtube. People were just raving about them non-stop. I looked at the eye shadow colors and started lusting after them for months until I finally got my hands on them 3 weeks ago at Hautelook. It took them 3 weeks to finally ship my order. The actual shipment only took 3 days by USPS but one of my eye shadow palettes came broken. I was so disappointed. Just bear in mind that if you were to purchase them from Hautelook, they ship really slow and the customer service is almost non-existent. I tried calling and live chat but could not get anyone to help me with my purchase. Anyway, back to the review.

Picture with no flash

Picture with flash

First two rows

3rd to 5th row

As you can see, they are quite pigmented. They were swatched with no primer. They blend pretty well on the eyes too. They could have a little fall-out but it is not a big deal for me. The eye shadows are just a little soft and feel a little silky when swatched. The matte shades have worse pigmentation, which is almost always the case for matte eye shadows.The shimmery shades feel quite creamy to touch with great pigmentation. For about 20 bucks, I think it is a really good palette. I just wish there are more shimmery light shades in this palette. Are they like the Coastal Scents palette? I would say they are quite similar to the 252 palette where every single shade has a full-sized version in terms of pigmentation and texture. 

One interesting finding: I actually also purchase Its bling palette (35E) and found that you could find them in Coastal Scents metal mania palette. It is as if they looked at the metal mania palette and purposely chose 35 eye shadows, made them bigger and put them in new palette. However, the 35E is so much more pigmented than the CS eye shadows in metal mania. Unfortunately, the 35E was received damaged (2 eye shadows broke) so I could not do a review on it.

Elf Acne fighting foundation in Buff and Sand swatches

I recently bought the foundation in Sand and realized it is not the right color. It is way darker than it appears online. Thankfully, Elf is nice enough to send me another one in Buff, which is almost my exact match.

Sand and Buff. Look almost the same from the outside

Sand and Buff. Sand does not look as dark but don't let the picture deceive you

Sand is way darker than Buff

Elf Lock On Liner and Brow Cream in Light brown swatch

Elf came out with some brow creams recently so I ordered it in light brown. Light brown is just slightly lighter than Elf gel liner in Coffee. It gives me a pretty natural brow look even though I am an Asian with black hair. In the past, I have always used the gel liner in Coffee for my brows and it works great. Both of them last more than 8 hours. I have nothing to complain as I have not tried the Anastasia one so I can't really tell whether it is supposed to be a dupe. For $4, it is worth trying.

Gel liner in Coffee vs brow cream in Light Brow

Swatches for gel liner and brown cream

Love and Beauty 21 Shade Eyeshadow Palette review and swatches

I usually don't care much about Forever 21 makeup until I found this palette that resembles the Urban Decay Naked palette. I really love metallic neutral so I just had to get it when I see one that looks good. I have to say that I am quite pleasantly surprised with this particular one.

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1st row

2nd row

3rd row

The last row is not as good as the other two but for $9.90, this is a good deal especially if you are not willing to spend a lot of money on the Naked palette Most eye shadows are creamy and highly pigmented. There are a few really good transition shade as well as dark shades to deepen your outer V. My only complain is there is no matte light shade for brow bone highlight. 

All in all, this is a very good palette for its price. Grab it when you get a chance.

Ebay metal palette VS Coastal Scents Metal Mania palette. Are they really the same thing?

Few years ago (not too long after the CS Metal Mania Palette came out), I purchased an 88 metal palette, which looks exactly like the CS Metal Mania palette from Ebay. This metal palette is not unique to CS alone. Many other companies sell the exact same palette under different names. So I thought these companies must have bought them from the same manufacturers and re-brand them and sell them for much higher price. At Ebay, you could get this palette for $10 including shipping. CS sells it for ~$18 but they do have sales sometimes. So you could get it for $7 or $8 during Black Friday. That was when I snatched mine. 

Left to right: Ebay 88 metal palette, CS 88 metal mania palette. They mostly appear to be the same, except for a green shade that has been swapped. The Ebay one also looks a little frostier

I have always been very curious about whether the Ebay is selling the same palette as CS. After trying out both, I realized that they are NOT the same in terms of texture even though the listed ingredients are the same. In fact, I have to say that the Ebay one seems to have a better quality even though it has been 5 years since I bought it. Ebay one is frostier (hence, some of they look even more metallic) and creamier to touch. CS one has a drier texture and harder to swatch. You will definitely need a primer for CS ones to show better.

Swatches of equivalent colors: the left ones are from CS, right from Ebay

More swatches

As you can see, they are not the exact same colors even though they are in the same position and appear to be the same. 

Does that mean that I support Ebay palette? Not necessarily. I always feel a little iffy about things that do not have a brand. When you buy an unbranded stuff, you can't hold anyone responsible when something bad happens. Who knows what the Chinese manufacturer put in the palette to make the shadows shinier/frostier? Obviously, the FDA in China is a lot looser compared to FDA in US. I just don't trust the ingredient list very much. It just seems like one manufacturer was trying to copy another manufacturer. This is just my opinion though. They might be just as safe (or just as unsafe compared to CS. Since they are both made in China) to use. Who knows?

ELF Baked Eye Shadows, Blush and Bronzer Review and Swatches

I got four of them to try out. They are awesome! Good pigmentation when swatched. Not much fall-out. For $3, you can't go wrong with this. The colors are just gorgeous! May get a few more when there's sales.

Enchanted baked shadow. Looks like you can actually use this as a highlighter too.

Bark

Peachy Cheeky baked blush. Good as highlighter for lighter skin tone

Maui baked bronzer. This is the right bronzer for my skin tone. Not too dark or light. Also, it does not look orange or muddy on skin! I use this on my crease to blend with eye shadows too. It works really well.

Physician Formula Magic Mosaic Bronzer Review

Looking cute huh? Don't be deceived! Look at the surface, you know something is wrong. There's a slight "shiny film" formed on the mosaic. Every time my product looks like this, it's a fail. This is the second PF bronzer that failed on me. I love always live PF but always have really bad experience with their bronzers. I am glad that I got it for only $3.49. It costs $13.49 originally. It was on the $7 off sales and there was a $3 off coupon attached. Still, it is not worth that $3.49!

See? No pigmentation! I rubbed really hard to get this little of color pay-off. Crap product. Back to store is where it goes!