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!

Taupe Brown with a Pop of Purple

My fav way to use color

My new fav fake lashes. Cheap but not too bad of quality

Blush I used for this look. It looks pinkier than it actually is.

Physician Formula Shimmer Strips Eye Shadows. My Absolute favorite.

Eye shadows removed for second look. Bare eye lids look weird, don't they?

Then I decided to play with some colors. These are blue and green. 

My makeup station. LOL. I cleaned up afterwards. :)

My Obsession: ELF Beauty School Everyday Eye Manual Review and S...

My Obsession: ELF Beauty School Everyday Eye Manual Review and S...: "When I saw this palette for the first time in Walgreens, I knew I was gonna get it. I tried to look for swatches online but could not find a..."

ELF Beauty School Everyday Eye Manual Review and Swatches

When I saw this palette for the first time in Walgreens, I knew I was gonna get it. I tried to look for swatches online but could not find any. So I decided to be one of the first people who bought this just to experiment and test out the quality.

The photo below was taken without flash.

With flash

The swatches (no primer) are shown below. As you can tell, some colors are so faint that you can barely see them. The pigmentation of those shadows are BAD. The texture is very hard. It's like you have to scrape the surface of the shadows to get the colors. If you have the NAKED palette dupe (ELF beauty book in previous collection) you'll notice that they share almost some texture, which I hate. Some shimmery shadows are soft in texture though. Some darker ones like the dark burgundy and blue are quite pigmented but chalky. They may cause some fall-out. Overall, I will only give 2/5 for this palette. ELF encyclopedias are much better. Ever since then, they never really come out with better eye shadows for their beauty books anymore. It'll always be hits and misses when it comes to ELF. If it's 50% off, I would say go ahead and get it. It's not a bad idea to add something to your collection. If you wanna use this for daily basis and there's no discount, don't get it because you'll be really pissed off like I am. Grrr...