bareMinerals 'The Happy Place' Eyeshadow Quad

I fell in love with bareMinerals eyeshadow formula after trying out the gray toned quad in 'The Truth.' I recently came to own and love another quad of theirs, 'The Happy Place.'

'The Happy Place' eyeshadow quad has 4 shades inside: Peace: a muted apricot, Imagine: a rose gold, Exhale: a smoky taupe, and Euphoria: eggplant.  The shadows are housed in a rubberized plastic container with a full size mirror on the inside of the compact.  A small dual ended sponge tip applicator is also included. The palette is $30 for 0.21oz of product. 

The colors are honestly a dream to play with.  Peace is a lovely transition color to swipe all over the eye area to begin your makeup look or to buff into the crease to make blending easier. Imagine is an INSANELY beautiful Rose Gold/copper color that leans super warm. It warms up my whole face when I put this on! Exhale is a wonderful color to blend into the crease or outer v, as is Euphoria. I was initially worried that this color combination might not go so well together but I had no reason to fret. 

These shadows are easy to blend, easy to apply, and the combo provided to you is full-proof to create an entire eye look with. I can't find a fault in this product! 

Check out this quad if you're looking for a full eye look in one easy to reach for compact. You won't be disappointed in the quality, price, ease of use, or the look you end up creating with these gorgeous colors! 

Check out this palette HERE!

Take a look at my post on 'The Truth' eyeshadow quad here!

xxSJ

bareMinerals Ready 4.0 Eyeshadow in 'The Truth'

Today's review is of an eyeshadow quad by bareMinerals, a brand I have had very little exposure to and was excited to check out.  I mainly purchased this eyeshadow quad because one of my favorite beauty girls on youtube, MakeupbyTiffanyD, recommended it and she is always spot on with her eyeshadow recommendations.

The envelope style packaging is super unique! It has NOTHING to do with the shadow but I like it, along with the 'Ready' written when you open it up. So definitive!

The compact is pretty sizable and is made of matte, black, rubberized packaging similar to NARS. Pro: It looks super sleek and expensive. Con: It gets dirty so fast! It was already kind of dirty when I took it out of the sleeve for the first time. 

Oh, hello! Open up the compact and there's a nice big mirror inside! Love it! The eyeshadows aren't huge (about the size of a nickel), and honestly this compact could have been a lot smaller given their size. This compact also comes with the dreaded sponge tip applicator which is just wasted space in my opinion. 

Here are the shadows. This palette is very gray and cool-toned which is why I purchased it. I've recently come to find that I love gray toned neutrals as opposed to brown and tan neutrals for my skintone. They are really easy to transition from day to night.

Serendipitous is a champagne highlight color with a satin finish. Magnetism is a perfect taupe with a buttery satin finish. Fate is a cool toned brown with the least sheen of all the colors. Apropos is a purplish gray that has silver flecks in it. These silver pieces do not transfer to the lid, however.

These shadows are all so buttery soft and they blend like a dream. So far, I'm in love. The one interesting thing I would say is that the colors swatch far warmer than they look in the pan. This concerned me at first because the mix of warm and cool tones I thought may look a bit muddy on the lid. However, the shadows manage to still look beautiful.

The bareMinerals 4.0 eyeshadow quads are $30 for 5g of product. That breaks down to 1.25g per shadow which is really close to a standard eyeshadow size (MAC Eyeshadows are 1.5g of product) so I think the $30 price tag is fair and actually a bit inexpensive considering the quality of the shadows! 

I don't know if I'll be purchasing other quads from bareMinerals as none of the other colors jumped out at me, but I definitely think this quad will be a staple in my collection!

What do you think of bareMinerals?

xxSJ

Smashbox Photo Op Eyeshadow Trio in 'Headshot'

When Ulta sends out their ever so elusive 20% off entire purchase including prestige brands it is time to stock up! I knew I wanted to try more of Smashbox's Photo Op Eyeshadow trios so I snatched up another one in the color 'Headshot:'

I LOVE the packaging for these little trios. The matte black rubberized packaging looks so sleek and modern and the little clear plastic window allows for you to see which colors are inside. I love how tiny this little compact is as well:

It fits in the palm of my hand and I have midget hands so you know that's pretty tiny! The smallness of this compact means there's no mirror on the inside. I don't mind as I rarely use mirrors inside compacts anyhow.

I chose the trio 'Headshot' because I've been wanting to wear more pinks on my eyes and I thought this trio had a perfect pink look all in one convenient place. The upper left color is called 'Linen' and is a mostly matte satiny white with subtle sheen. The upper right pink color is called 'Golden Orchid' and is a gorgeously muted soft pink with golden and peach reflects in it. The lower dark brown color is called 'Chestnut' and it is a purpley, burgundy brown color.

These colors look so beautiful together and these Smashbox trios don't cease to impress and excite me with how darn good they are! Seriously these shadows are not only so beautiful in color, but they are so buttery soft that it makes blending them a dream.  Since blending them really is SO easy, be careful to have a light hand while blending as to not blend your color away or create a bit of a muddy mess!

Smashbox trios are priced at $28 which I think is a fair price considering the professional quality of the shadow.  These shadows are very easy to use and I can recommend them to everyone from beginners to experts.

xxSJ