Haul, Swatches, and Review: Wet n Wild Pop Art Craze Limited Edition Trios in I'm Seeing Triples!, Three's a Party, and A Regular at the Factory

I was supposed to be on a no buy until the start of August, but some lovely Limited Edition items broke my resilience.

I'm an absolute sucker for Wet n Wild...I think it is just about the best value out there on the market. It's dirt cheap, but still usually amazing quality. By purchasing these shadows, you can experiment and play with new colors without breaking the bank.

The brand recently brought out a collection of Pop Art Craze trios inspired by Andy Warhol and the girls of the Factory. I think that's a really interesting era of art and was very excited to pick up a few pieces.

My local Walgreen's had a small display of all of the trios, so I had to make the tough decision of which ones I should buy. I could have picked up all of them, but I decided to have at least some self restraint and limit myself to three. Here's what I picked up.

I'm Seeing Triples! has a soft green, a bright blue, and a plummy purple. Three's A Party has what is somewhere between a white and a cream, a red (a rarity for the drugstore!) and a matte black. A Regular at the Factory has a soft butter yellow, a bluish teal, and a warm almost rusty orange.

I hate the applicators that come with it, but I ended up keeping the sponge tip ones because it is a decent way to pack on the color.

And here's the swatches. Each trio is swatched over NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk. As you can tell, the pigmentation only comes when a white base is used. I have to say, I'm not too impressed with these shadows. Wet n Wild usually has stellar pigmentation without a base, but that is clearly not the case here. What is does have going for it is that the colors are very unique for the drugstore. I've been playing with different combos, and my favorite is a sunset eye--the yellow on the inner portion of the eye, blended into the orange, and then blended into the red on the outer portion of the eye. Another downside is that it would be hard to make an actual look out of just one trio. I suppose a look could be made with just Three's a Party, but I feel like a balanced look would require supplemental shadows for most of the trios. However, that's not something I'm very concerned with because I would rather have a unique color than yet another browbone highlight shade.

So, in summary, it isn't the greatest quality, but I would still urge you to pick these up. The price is right, just under three bucks a pop, and I love collecting Limited Edition items. If you see them while you're out at Walgreens, be sure to snag them before they're gone!

Until next time, kiddos,

xo, Maria.

Review, Swatches, and FOTD: Meet Matt(e) Nude Palette from theBalm

As any Internet-obsessed makeup addict knows, Hautelook can be a pretty great site for scoring beauty deals. A brand that is frequently featured is theBalm. In fact, they are on the flash sale site so often that I can't justify buying the brand at full price. The complaint I have is that the site takes so long to ship, and the shipping is about $6, which may not sound like a lot, but when the whole point of the site is that it's a flash sale that will save you money, it adds up. I ordered this palette at the beginning of May, and it took until the end of the month for it to get to me.

I wanted this palette because I've been allllll about matte shadows recently. I think it's because I've started working in an office, and glittery shadow just feel a bit inappropriate. This summer, I've switched to matte shadows, started going to bed before midnight, and had to spend a ton of money on replacing a flat tire. I'M A FULL FLEDGED ADULTS, GUYS!

Like I said, it took forever for this palette to ship to me, but my oh my, was it worth the wait!

Here he is, the beauty. The cover features a good-lookin' man whose teeth literally sparkle.

These eyeshadow pans are HUGE. I literally don't know if I will ever hit pan on anything.

Swatchy, swatchy. These are so lovely. These are just a single pass of the shadows on my arm without any primer or base. Matt Johnson is a sort of gray-navy, Matt Garcia is a deep warm brown, Matt Malloy is a lovely pure white, Matt Rosen is a warm orangey-brown, Matt Wood is a super dark brown that looks almost black when swatched, Matt Singh is a peachy-beige that I'm OBSESSED with, Matt Abdul is a grayed taupe, Matt Lombardi is a dark yellow that is ideal for blending out crease shades, and Matt Hung is a burgundy brown. Aren't I super good with color descriptions?

This palette is so awesome. The formula of the shadows is the best I've ever seen for mattes. They are creamy, pigmented, and not at all chalky. A variety of looks can also be achieved with this single palette. While overall the palette is cool toned, there are enough warm shades to create that kind of look if it strikes your fancy. If I'm running late for work, a super simple eye look is Matt Singh all over the lid, Matt Abdul in the crease, and a bit of Matt Malloy under the eyebrow. I personally don't use Matt Malloy as an inner corner highlight because I'm not a fan of the super white tearduct look.

Here I am with a quick look I created as soon as this came in the mail. Please ignore the blemish on my forehead that is covered with a concealer that is so obviously not my shade. I was matched to NW20 at the MAC counter months ago, and this concealer is so hilariously wrong for me. But I use it sometimes because it's too late to take it back and I hate wasting it. 

Here's a close up of the eyes. Not the most impressive or creative, but it was nice and simple, yet pulled together.

Overall, I'm so in love with this palette. I think it is worth the full price, but I would just hold out until it's on Hautelook next if you don't mind waiting a few weeks for shipping.

Until next time, kiddos,

xo, Maria.