Free for Haul Friday!

It's been a while since I really hauled anything, mainly due to holiday shopping... I really didn't have time to shop for myself. So Thursday, January 5, 2012, MAC released the Naturally Collection, along with the MAC and Iris Apfel Collection. I am pretty much attracted to anything called naturally, so I had to check it out in person. So aside from MAC I also checked out the new cream shadows from Maybelline.

The collection itself is medium in size. It contains 4 lipsticks, 4 lipglass, 5 mineralize eye shadows, 2 mineralize skin finishes, 2 eye pencils, 3 mineralize blushes, and 2 duo fiber brushes. I picked up a the blush in Early Morning, 2 of the eye shadows Twilight Falls and Summer Haze, and a lipglass in Naked Space. I will post a separate review of these products once I have truly tried them out, other than just swatching.

Summer Haze - Mineralize Eye Shadow 

Twilight Falls - Mineralize Eye Shadow

Early Morning - Mineralize Blush

Naked Space - Lipglass

After I went to MAC I stopped in Walgreens to see of they had any of the Maybelline Color Tattoo cream eye shadow. They had all 10 shades at Walgreens and they were buy one and get one for 50%, but I only wanted 5 of them. They had a really bright purple, green, blue and orange, and plain white. I have NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk, so I didn't feel the need to get that one. The orange was too bright and I would never wear it, so I passed on it too. I passed on the purple and blue because I have some 24/7 shade sticks from Urban Decay, and I passed on the green because I wanted a darker green and not quite so bright.

Bottom: This is nice, because you can see the color through the bottom clearly.

Top: I love this because it has the name on the top of the jar.

The ones I picked up were, Audacious Asphalt (grey), Bad to the Bronze (bronze), Bold Gold (gold), Pomegranate Punk (burgundy-ish) and Tough as Taupe (matte taupe). These are very comparable to the MAC paint pots. The prices are $5.99 to $6.99, I paid $6.99 at Walgreens, but they are $5.99 at Target. The are 0.14 oz or 4 g, where as MAC paint pots are 0.17 oz or 5 g and they run about $17.50 each. I will post a separate review of these products once I have truly tried them out, other than just swatching.

Top L-R: Pomegranate Punk, Bold Gold, Audacious Asphalt
Botton L-R: Bad to the Bronze and Tough as Taupe

Have you hauled anything from MAC or the drugstore? I am always looking for suggestions on products! Thanks for reading and don't forget the Sigma discount code 0112XJML is good until January 31st!

XO Shannon

I Got Naked2!!!

I am a huge fan of Urban Decay cosmetics and a proud owner of the original Naked palette, so when I heard about the new Naked2 palette I was beyond excited! I watched xsparkage and Temptalia's reviews of the palette prior to the launch and knew immediately that I MUST have this palette!

Currently the Naked2 palette is only available online, through Urban Decay's website. According to sources, it will not be available for purchase in stores until mid to late January. I personally couldn't wait that long, so when I received the email from UD that it was available I jumped... but not until the third release. I wanted to wait and read blogs or watch YouTube videos on the product, even though I had every intention of purchasing.

The shades in the Naked2 palette are described as taupe and greige neutrals, containing 5 exclusive shades.  I would say the shade descriptions are pretty accurate. Where the original Naked palette is warmer, with bronze and golden shades, the Naked2 is much cooler and contains mostly taupe colors or variations of taupe. With the Naked2 palette you get a mini Lip Junkie in the shade, you guessed it, Naked! Which I have to say is a nice change from the Original Primer Potion you get with the original Naked.

The only thing I was truly disappointed in was the repeat shadow in Half-Baked. This color to me doesn't follow suite with the rest of the shades in Naked2 and is part of Naked. If they were going to repeat a shade, I wish it would have been Naked. This palette contains 3 matte shades, Foxy, Tease and Black Out (part of the 15th anniversary palette). I am happy that two highlight shades are included in this palette, one that is matte and one that is frosted.

L-R: Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, and Snakebite

L-R: Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted and Blackout

A lot of people are raving about how great the new packaging is... well I personally didn't find anything wrong with the original packaging, I actually liked it. This new packaging is frustrating, it is metal and when you close it you have to make sure the slots line up to close properly. I do like the larger mirror, even though it will be rarely used. The size of the Naked2 is comparable to the original, as well as the amount of product.

Top: Naked2
Bottom: Naked

One thing I was really excited about was the new double ended brush that comes with Naked2, unfortunately my palette was missing the brush. But fret not, I contacted customer service and they apologized and sent me out a new brush! The Naked palette, when originally released, came with a double ended liner in Whiskey and Zero and then due to production issues, they now come with the Good Karma Eye Shadow Brush. I was a little sad, I wish I could have gotten my hands on one that had the eye liner, but the brush is nice and is used quite frequently.

The Naked2 palette is priced at $50, which to me is an awesome price! The original Naked palette was $48, so only a $2 price increase. For $50 you get 12 full size eye shadows, that are comparable to a MAC eye shadow, a double ended brush and a mini Lip Junkie. Not bad I must say! At  MAC a quad, pre-packaged, runs you $38 or if you build your own with 4 shadows $53 or with 15 shadows $188.50, you could but 3.5 Naked palettes for building one palette with 15 shadows. The quality of UD is like butter and are long lasting, at least on me, and wearable for day to day or nighttime.

For those of you wondering if it is worth it to buy Naked2 if you have Naked, I would say no... but the one that suits you, cool or warm. But if you are like me and love neutrals, Urban Decay and are a collector, then YES buy it! You won't be disappointed!

If you got Naked2, or Naked, let me know what are your favorite color combinations or looks! Thanks for reading, until next time!

XO Shannon