confessions of an unapologetic makeup junkie

le price:
i love love love these palettes. i got the regular palette and the shimmer ones about a month ago and i love it. i got them for 2,225.00 php or roughly 48usd. can you imagine that? 176 eyeshadows for less than fifty dollars? that's quite a steal!

le experience:
quality wise, it simply delivers. i don't own a primer potion yet and ive been using a matte white shadow or a stick concealer as base in a while now, and it doesn't crease at all. my class usually lasts 4-5 hours and i have it on for about 6 hours a day the colors are just as vibrant. i guess i wouldve gotten better color pay off if i have primers as well, but i could not be happier with its end results as it is. and that's saying a lot as i am a bit on the oily side.

however, i do not like the glossy packaging as it tends to scratch and look a whole lot of ugly from normal transit. :(

the sponge applicators that come with it are just as bad, i just don't have the heart to throw them away as it is a part of the set and its holder would just look empty without it. luckily though, i have invested in a good set of locally available brushes and it simply works well with this palette.

more useful for me is the regular/matte palette, as it has both shimmer and matte shadows as well as neutrals. with a good moisturizer, i even use it as blush and with gloss, or sometimes good ol' petroleum jelly, i even use it as a lip tint. the shades are simply versatile and it has effectively expanded not just my shadow collection but my color collection in general. the regular palette is the one i have with me everywhere i go. i have a neutral and shimmer palettes but they are both left at home.

the shimmer palette, however is the one i love using when i just wanna have fun and go crazy with colors. it goes on smooth and creamy too and it is a tad easier to blend than the regular matte shadows.

i (used to)twilight as a (non-professional)make up artist for the girls at my dorm, and i use the regular palette on them lots of times and they all love the colors as well as staying powers as well.

as far as skin issues go, i have quite a sensitive skin, but so far i have not encountered any breakouts, nor does my young "clients."

le verdict:
4.5 lipsticks!
i only took off half a point for its packaging. hate, hate hate le glossy black packaging which is scratch-prone and fugly looking. all in all, i love love love these palettes.

note:
i didnt bother to put different pictures as it honestly looks the same with or with out the flash.

i recently bought fanny serrano's silky coral blush which have been causing wildfires @ the girltalk forums.
when i first saw the fs blush, i had doubts. it looked too pale to be a good orgasm dupe. but once i swatched it. the similarity blew my mind away. of course it is not an exact match but the difference is just minimal. nars' orgasm has a bit more gold flecks when swatched but once blended, you can't tell the difference at all. i kid you not.

and before both colors could show up in my hand and in my camera, i had to make three swipes from each, so the color is really intense. i find it really hard swatching blushes cuz they're not supposed to intensify in color when applied right? the theory "a little goes a long way" is very much true here. so colorwise, it seems like it's a deadlock. or if you like it more shimmery, go for the nars' one. less shimmery, FS is for you.. but then again, as i said, once blended it really is the same.
here without flash.
when it comes to staying power, again, it is a deadlock. both stayed on for 2-3 hours before i had to reapply (it's lucky they showed up on me at all.) maybe even four hours, but i like a good color on my cheeks so i reapply sooner than i have to. i dont wait for the color to disappear totally. in terms of staying power, i think i have my TFS span primer to thank for that.

packaging, of course the matte rubber of nars win as opposed to FS' plastic case. the brush that came with FS is not completely useless too so i guess that's a point for FS.

price:
Nars = 1350 vs. Fanny Serrano = 350. there appears to be a clear winner, right?