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darkmoon-makeup · 5 years

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Acne and Beauty - A Ramble About Having Bad Acne and Trying To Be A Beauty Guru

DISCLAIMER: This is just my experience, and my views/story/etc. This is not fact, and should only be taken as, at most, advice. My skin is unique to me - yours may be similar, but they are not the same.

So, acne - for some, it’s a neutral thing. You have it, and it’s there, but you don’t mind. Or maybe you don’t have acne at all, but instead have dry or irritated skin. Or maybe you fall closer to where I do - you have acne, and you hate it. For me, my acne is mainly genetic: my skin is oily, sensitive, and acne-prone, and the dry, hot climate I call home does nothing but make my face produce enough oil to fuel a fast food joint for weeks. Because of this, I’ve always had issues with makeup - foundations not working, primers failing, breakouts, dry patches, allergic reactions, and most of all: horrible, and dropping, self confidence.

You may ask yourself “Why?” How does acne affect someone’s self confidence as severely as it does mine? Well, my issues are that I, no matter what I do to myself, cannot achieve the same results as the beautiful, talented people online, whose foundations cover their every flaw and their skin is perfect, smooth, and even - no redness to be seen, not a pimple in sight, and no pores to be had. My foundations have never, ever been full coverage, even when I watched beauty gurus online apply it and look like they had a whole new face, and nothing has ever been the same for me - it made me doubt my skills as a makeup artist, and it made me despise the skin I have, that I /should/ be grateful for because its oily nature will aide me in my older years.

Very rarely do I see anyone with acne treat it as if it’s okay to have - so, so many beauty gurus treat pimples and acne like a horrible affliction, as if having it means you’re disgusting and cannot be beautiful. And it doesn’t help that the secret behind their perfect skin is several, several hundred dollars worth of expensive skincare that you don’t know will work for you. The rare beauty gurus I see who do have acne still manage to pull off perfect looks, and while wonderful to see them showing their acne as a natural thing, I still doubted my skills.

Until, that is, I found someone who had so many of the same reactions I did. Nadi, from the channel PopLuxe, is a man I hold near and dear to my heart. His skin is beautiful: but his reactions are genuine and so is his criticism. When I saw him review the Fenty foundation, I almost cried - I wasn’t alone, my skills aren’t the problem, and this lovely, oily man had the exact same reaction I did and wasn’t afraid to voice it and tell the world that the FENTY BEAUTY FOUNDATION did not work for him.

This is getting heavily off topic, so I’ll cut myself short: Having acne is okay, and it’s fine to not cover it all. Just because everyone else can do or use a product doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong because it won’t work for you. Don’t be afraid of cheap skincare, and don’t treat your acne like a life-defining trait. And if you’re like me, and you really cannot live with acne, learn your skin. Experiment. Perfect skin takes /time/ - months, seriously. Be patient and make sure to stop using a product if it becomes painful.

#acne #acne problems #makeup #makeup review #positivity

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darkmoon-makeup · 5 years

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Opalescent Palette Review

Hello, everyone! It is a beautiful, overcast Friday today, and with four candles lit and my hair brushed I’m ready to sit down and write another makeup review for this ever-so-dead blog. Today’s palette is “Opalescent”, a palette released on February 19th of this year, and I’ve been playing with it since I got it around the release date. Three months later, here we are, ready to break down and review this bad boy.

Starting out, this palette retails for $24.00 USD and is vegan and cruelty-free, as well as gluten free and dermatologist tested. The official BHCosmetics website describes it as follows.

“ Get swept away in a whimsical fantasy with our Opalescent - 24 Color Shadow Palette. This essential collection features luxe neutrals with warm undertones and opulent pink and plum hues to create endless magical eye looks. Finishes range from buttery mattes to luminous shimmers in a pigment-rich formula that blends effortlessly. “

On the back of the palette, it mentions that this is a eyeshadow AND highlighter palette, so I’ll be mentioning which shades could double as highlighters by putting them in bold font, as well as italics.

The picture is a little dim, I know, and that’s because I take my photos in natural lighting. Anyways.

The packaging is your standard, stiff cardboard, however this palette stands out a bit due to the fact that, in good lighting, the entire palette is iridescent - it shows nice pink, purple and blue shifts, and overall, it feels very nice. The logo and name are slightly raised as well, and the palette feels light.

Opening the palette reveals not only a huge mirror, but the 24 shades in question - that’s about a dollar per shadow, if you were curious - and their bright, pastel prison, which you can see has the BHCosmetics logo in the center.

Out of the 24 shades,10 are mattes, 7 could be used as highlighters ( for lighter/medium skintones, but if you’re darker and like a metallic highlight, you could utilize more like 10-12 of these as highlighters! ), 8 are metallic and 6 are shimmers. Each pan is about the size of a quarter, maybe a hair bigger.

( From top to bottom, the swatches are of “Flutter”, “Dainty”, “Captivating”, “Lovely”, “Charm”, “Dreamer”, “Bright”, “Alluring”, “Opaline”, “Dazzle”, “Gorgeous”, “Grace”, “Twilight”, “Magic”, “Star”, “Fling”, “Romance”, “Delight”, “Vivacious”, “Wish”, “Stunner”, “Sequin”, “Opulent”, and “Mystic. All of these are swatched over the UrbanDecay Primer Potion! )

So here’s my thoughts on the palette!

Overall, I love this palette’s looks and aesthetic - it’s a pretty, soft palette, with all kinds of potential for whimsical and soft, fairy-like looks. I’ve done a few of those, but this palette is also amazing for lighter looks for daily wear - which is why I grab the palette most of the time, if I’m not looking for one of the shades as a highlight. The color layout is nice and inviting: the shimmers and metallics certainly steal the show when you first glance at this palette, namely “Opaline” and the purple shades.

In terms of performance, I have few issues with it. The mattes get powdery fast, but with minimal fallout and some of the best blend-ility I’ve ever seen, specifically from a purple, it’s a good trade-off. The shimmers are gorgeous, and make beautiful highlights, and the metallics are stunning. This palette has one of my favorite shimmer formulas, and my second-favorite matte formula, and for a price tag of $24 USD, this is half the price of some of my favorite palettes - with the same quality.

I think my only issue overall is that it’s almost suspicious, how good this palette is for its price. At half the price, this competes easily with the “Blood Sugar” palette from JeffreeStarCosmetics ($52, 18 shadows, $2.88 per shadow), with more shadows, and it competes with the “Festival” palette from PUR Cosmetics ($36, 12 shadows, $3.00 per shadow ) easily. I wonder how it can do that while maintaining an easily affordable price - I wonder if it has to do with how much product is in each pan? The pans in the “Opalescent” palette are small, especially in comparison to the “Festival” and “Blood Sugar” palettes, but not by a huge amount - and while it could be a difference in ingredients, or packaging, I’m just unsure of how BHCosmetics is pulling it all off.

That said, I really do love this palette to bits and pieces, and I give it a 9.5/10/

#bhcosmetics #opalescent #makeup #review #makeup review #eyeshadow

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darkmoon-makeup · 5 years

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JeffreeStarCosmetics - The best, or just good? ( For eyeshadows, at least ).

Hello everyone!

Today I’ll be doing a review on two of the JeffreeStarCosmetics’ eyeshadow palettes - “Beauty Killer”, and “Blood Sugar”. I won’t be doing a full-on comparison ( not yet, anyways ) but I will be reviewing the palettes based on their price, their reputations, what they were advertised as, and how they actually perform. And, to be thorough, I’ve had both of the palettes long enough to make noticeable dents in some of the shadows, and to give them both a fair try. Also, I will be reviewing each category - Packaging and Presentation, Performance, and Cost. The highest possible score in all three categories is 5 - with that out of the way, let’s begin.

( DISCLAIMER: the following post is just my analysis on how these palettes performed and felt to me. I used my own primers, my own brushes, and my own techniques, meaning the quality I saw may not be what you see. I am not attacking JSC - this is simply a review of how the products worked for me. )

Part 1: Presentation.

Above are the two palettes I’ll be reviewing today. In terms of packaging, they both feel drastically different - Beauty Killer feels like your average, sturdy cardboard palette, and while it’s pretty on the outside it isn’t the most stunning thing. Inside, it comes with a fairly large mirror, and ten massive shadows. The color placement is nice, and the imprints in the shadows are pretty, and add a designer feel to the whole thing. Overall, it’s a nice looking/feeling palette, and receives a 4/5.

Blood Sugar on the other hand feels great. While on the bigger side of the scale, and a bit clunky, it isn’t huge, and the outside feels expensive and nice - like leather. It also looks nice, with small metal clasps to keep it closed, and while simple it does look like a pricey palette. The mirror is noticeably bigger on this palette, and the shadows are just as nice as they were in Beauty Killer - just not as huge. This palette boasts 18 red-toned shadows, with the same imprints on the pans - as well as the addition of a syringe on “Prick” and a caduceus on “Coma”. Overall a beautiful palette - 5/5.

Part 2: Performance. ( swatches above are “Beauty Killer” and “Blood Sugar”, top to bottom, on my clean, un-primed arm )

Here’s the category where it counts - performance is what really matters in these palettes, as it’s kind of a waste to buy a palette that’s pretty in packaging/presentation but horrible in performance. I mainly included the swatches to show the colors a bit better, but please keep in mind that swatches are NOT a good way to judge a palette’s quality. Shadows that swatch poorly can perform amazingly - I’ll get back to that point later.

To start, Beauty Killer has, as previously mentioned, ten shadows. On the website, this palette is described as “Our first ever eyeshadow palette is finally here!!! 10 jaw-dropping shades. Extreme pigment. There are 3 formulas in this palette: matte, frost & glitter.” To clarify, there are 4 mattes ( Star Power, Courtney, Vanity, China White ), 2 glitters ( Expensive, Black Rainbow ), and 4 frosts ( Princess, Violence, Rich B*tch, Confession ). One of the glitters isn’t even a true glitter - “Black Rainbow” is the odd one out in this palette, as it’s a matte, black base with small rainbow glitter scattered throughout it. But the real question here is - are they actually extremely pigmented, like the website claims?

And the answer is, for the most part, yes. The mattes are pigmented, and while a few are chalky ( Star Power, mainly ) the rest are actually really nice and soft. You can probably tell what my favorite is because I’m close to hitting the pan on it - “China White” is a really nice- bone-white shadow that makes a great base for natural looks. The downside? The fallout is ridiculous - you dip into the shadows, and the mattes are so soft that powder goes everywhere, and unless you’re extremely careful it can be tough to gather up the powder to avoid wasting it. As for actual fallout, it isn’t as noticeable with the pale shades - it comes into play with the ones like “Star Power”, “Black Rainbow”, and “Courtney”. These have some fallout to them, but if you use just a tiny bit, you’re fine, and with how pigmented these shadows are, you may not need more than that little bit to get your look done. So, in the case of the mattes and glitters, the “Extreme pigment” claim is true. They also blend nicely, so that’s a plus.

But what about the frosts? For a shadow making up nearly half of the palette, aren’t these important too?

Well, the answer is no, these aren’t heavily pigmented. I know in the swatches, all of them except “Princess” are showing up nicely, but when you apply them to a primed eye they take a lot of building to get much color with a brush - you’re better off pressing them on with your finger to get a soft, purple or gold-tinted shimmer. But despite their lack of pigment with a normal brush ( or a wet one, these shadows do not like water or my setting spray! ) these are actually my favorite shadows in this palette. They have a really nice shimmer to them, an icy glow, if you would, and I like that the colors are so soft - it makes the three crazier colors a lot more wearable for the average person, and the formula is amazing - they aren’t powdery like their matte siblings, and they have a lot less fallout too. If Jeffree were to sell these on their own, I’d probably do my best to get my hands on them all.

Finally, the glitters, who deserve their own segment at the bottom because of how much I hate “Black Rainbow”. “Expensive” is alright, and again is much better off being applied with your finger rather than a brush, but “Black Rainbow”? Absolutely not. The fallout is horrible, the black matte is patchy and hard to blend, and when applied the glitter is so hard to see it may as well not be there. For a glitter, this shade is a failure, but thankfully as a matte it isn’t the worst black I’ve ever tried. It can be used as an accent color, and blended out if you use just the /tiniest/ amount. Nothing more.

So, overall, what is the quality of the “Beauty Killer” palette? It certainly is a beauty, as are most of its shadows, but it isn’t really a killer - its frost shadows are, though, giving it a solid 4/5 again. The frosts themselves get a 5/5.

Next we move on to “Blood Sugar” - one of JeffreeStarCosmetics’ biggest sellers, having sold out every single time it restocked ( and before I could get it, which was part of why this post was delayed so much! ).

So, like I said earlier, “Blood Sugar” has a total of 18 shadows - the website says “Our iconic Blood Sugar palette! Featuring 18 striking eyeshadows and pressed-pigments.This palette is serving three luxurious formulas: matte, metallic and foil. Luxurious red faux leather finish in a metal clasp palette. One of a kind. Extreme payoff.”

Now, I call crap on this claim. Of this palette’s 18 shadows, a whopping 14 are mattes, leaving little room for the two metallics, and the two “foils”. The “foils” are the same formula as the frost shadows I mentioned in my review of “Beauty Killer”, so while this is a minor thing, I was kind of confused as to why they didn’t just call them frosts - but I just wanted to bring that up. I’ll get back to the serious review now.

So, to start, are the mattes as striking, luxurious, and EXTREME-PIGMENT as the website claims they are?

Somewhat. All of the mattes are heavily pigmented, and while “Cavity” feels strikingly similar to “Star Power” from “Beauty Killer”, the colors are just different enough to be different colors - however, like its sister from the same mister, “Cavity” is kind of chalky and its sister just two pans over, “Root Canal”, feels the same. The quality of blending and application is a little worse than the other mattes because of this, but with a little more work they’ll give you the same pretty look the others will. “Extraction”, “Coma”, and “Fresh Meat” also feel chalky to the touch, but unlike the two I just criticized, they don’t suffer any disadvantages from this, and still apply and blend nicely. Other than the shadows/pigments I specifically mentioned, the mattes are soft, with the same powder-iness that “Beauty Killer” had, but this time, they’re creamier and have better pigmentation. “Glucose” specifically is my second favorite white shadow to use as a base for colorful looks. So, for the most part, yes - the mattes are striking, luxurious, and high-PIGMENT. Not quite extreme yet, Blood Sugar.

Now for the two metallics - some of my favorite formulas in this entire palette. Both of them ( “Donor” and “Blood Sugar” ) are stunning - heavy on the pigment and the beautiful, reflective finish, and with the soft, creamy texture and the lack of powder or fallout, they’re the Chad of the frost-metallic-foil shadows that JSC puts out. “Donor” is a little more metallic-y than “Blood Sugar”, and both of them play well with a wet brush - water and my setting spray!

Finally, the foil-frosts. They’re pretty much the same as the originals - just with more powdery-ness, and the same pigmentation. I love them all the same, but the metallics and soft, buttery mattes take the cake on this palette for me.

So, what is my final score for this palette? 4.5/5. It loses a half point because of the chalky shadows, which make up a third of the mattes.

Part 3: Cost.

Finally, you might be thinking to yourself, we’re done! This is the end of the review! And right you are - this is the last segment before I add my notes, and you’re free to go about your day again! ( Assuming you even got here! )

So, “Beauty Killer” retails for $45. For ten shadows, in large pans, is this worth it?

Not really. While I wouldn’t say this is terribly over-priced, I do feel $45 for the quality you get and the color range is a bit much, but with as much product comes in the pans, I can’t complain all that much. It gets a 3.5/5, and overall, a 3.5/5. Not the best, but not the worst. A good palette overall.

As for “Blood Sugar”? At a $52 retail price, I think it’s a bit much. The shadows are good, yes, and very pigmented, but I can get the exact same quality for a fraction of the price - I feel like most of the price tag on this palette goes into the packaging, and while it is nice, I don’t think $34 is a good price for fancy, faux-leather covered cardboard. 4/5, and a overall score of 4.5/5.

Thank you for reading my lengthy review of the JeffreeStarCosmetics “Beauty Killer” and “Blood Sugar” palettes! Please consider leaving a like on this post or following me for more if you enjoyed this, and please keep in mind that again, this is just my own experience. If these palettes are better or worse for you, that’s fine!

( Notes: I used the TooFaced “Shadow Insurance” and Medusa’s Makeup eye primers with these shadows, and the NYX Mattifying setting spray for some of them. )

( Also, for my estimate on the price of the shadows vs the packaging of “Blood Sugar”, I compared it to the “Opalescent” palette BHCosmetics recently put out. It has more shadows, smaller pans, but the same quality - which is why I used it as my example. )

#jeffree star #jeffreestarcosmetics #jsc #beauty killer #blood sugar #makeup #reviews #eyeshadow pale

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