Victorian Disco Review: Sindarin Collection

Hello lovely readers!
Today, we are going to geek out and chic out with Victorian Disco Cosmetics' new Sindarin collection. This collection is based on works by J.R.R. Tolkien. This is a collection of six duo-chrome, iridescent, and magical eyeshadows! And as always, VDC eyeshadows are 100% vegan!


Sindarin (also known as Elven-tongue) is the Elvish middle-earth language used by J.R.R. Tolkien in many of his works and spoken by the Grey-Elven, or Sindar. "Sindarin" is the Quenya term for the Sindar's language, and the Sindar term for their own language is Edhellen.

Price and Availability

I purchased the entire set in mini jars, and it is $12.

A full size set is $27. 

Check out the VDC store for more information.

Colors

Lorien - pale, yellow-toned champagne shade with gold duo-chrome. This is named after Lothlorien, which is the fairest forest realm of the Elves (from The Lord of the Rings)

Mellon - a yellow-toned orange with pinky violet shift. "Mellon" (which means friend) was the password to enter Moria in The Lord of the Rings.

Arda - a light and girly pink with gold and red shimmers. "Arda" is the word for "Earth" used by Tolkien.

Eldar- This is an iridescent pastel lilac with pink/violet shimmer. The Eldar were the elves that accepted the summoning of Orome and journeyed to Aman, The Undying Lands.

Evenstar- a dusty blue with a green/turquoise shift. "Evenstar" means Evening Star and refers to Arwen.

Thranduil- pale minty/sage green with a purple sheen. Thranduil is Legolas' father and is a character in The Hobbit.

Swatches

Review

     As a huge geek and bookworm, you can imagine how excited I was to get this collection! I am a huge fan of J. R. R. Tolkien's work, and as you may know, a beauty junkie. This collection is right up my alley!

The eyeshadows go well with this elf-inspired collection because all the colors are iridescent, shimmery, and very magical-looking. Because these are so iridescent, it also means that these won't give you an opaque color; they are meant to be sheer and shimmery. Even so, they give a pretty good amount of color. 

All the colors are very smooth and apply easily. My favorites are the last three: Eldar, Evenstar, and Thranduil. Thranduil was a big surprise. In the jar, it looks very green, but it is very toned down and it has an awesome purple shift. It is gorgeous! Eldar is purple, so of course I love it! Evenstar is another color that surprised me. It looks like a dusty blue, but when applied it explodes with a turquoise duo-chrome! Overall a very lovely spring collection. Lorien is a great color for highlighting, since it has a gold duo-chrome. Mellon and Arda are very fun and spring-time colors that will work well on their own or in combination with other colors.

      If I could only pick one color to recommend, I couldn't; I am tied between Evenstar and Thranduil. I love Evenstar because it has a mermaid-like, turquoise quality to it, and I love Arwen! Thranduil, on the other hand is such a dusty color with a pop of purple that is very unexpected!

     As far as negative points, I don't really have much to complain about. I can see that if you prefer matte shades or very pigmented colors and if you don't like pastel colors, you might not like these. You might get some shimmer fall out and what-not, but to me, that is not a huge deal. The only thing I can personally complain about is that I wish that Eldar was either slightly more pigmented or that the shimmer in it was slightly more noticeable.

Rating: 9.5/10

It is official. I feel like the biggest geek right now~ ♥

So tell me, are you a J. R. R. Tolkien fan? Excited for the upcoming The Hobbit movie?!

Which color from this collection is your favorite?

Final Fantasy Series: Yuna

Final Fantasy series? Heck yes! After doing some of the Victorian Disco Tutorials on the Crystalline Affection duos, I got the urge to do inspired looks on the actual Final Fantasy characters. The last duo I reviewed and used was the Tidus x Yuna one, and I really liked Yuna as a character so I decided to do a look based on her first. I've also seen a lot of FF looks on Vijaya's blog that I loved~ So I decided to do some of my own and the first is the Summoner Yuna look.

Inspiration pictures: I used the purple-blue and light pink of her kimono/dress, the yellow, green, and orange of her obi, and the blue of the tassels that hang from her obi.

And this is the very bright Yuna inspired look:

Products Used

-Lime Crime Eyeshadow Helper

-CUICU Diamond Powder Eyeshadow Violet #21

-CUICU Diamond Powder Eyeshadow Orange #07

-Victorian Disco Cosmetics 'Yuna'

-Lime Crime ChinaDoll Palette

-Dolly Wink liquid liner

-Wet n Wild white pencil liner

-Maybelline Illegal Length mascara

-KKCenterhk ES A598 Lashes 

Tutorial

1. Start with a primed eye. Since I am working with matte eyeshadows, I am not going to use my Pixie Epoxy. I am using a sample of the Lime Crime Eyeshadow Helper.

Apply a dark, blue toned violet onto the lid. I am using the CUICU Violet, it is a matte blurple, although it comes out more purple on the photos. This represents the blue/purple of her dress.

2. Next, use a fluffy brush to apply a shimmery pink color on the crease, using it to blend the purple color. I used the Victorian Disco eyeshadow Yuna, since it is befitting for this look.

3. On the bottom lash line, apply bright colors. I used a bright green, orange, and sky blue (I also used a yellow but I didn't add that until the very end).

 

4. Next, apply white eye liner on the water line and extend it out the outer corner of the eye. Apply liquid liner and mascara as well.

5. This is optional but I applied false lashes.

6. And like I said before, I also applied the yellow color from the Lime Crime ChinaDoll palette.

This is a very bright take on Yuna, after all she does wear a lot of colorful accessories. For more natural look check out my Tidus and Yuna look.  Hope you like it :D

 Do you want more Final Fantasy looks?

Victorian Disco Tutorial: Tidus and Yuna

I know that I love my darker and dramatic eyes, but here is something a little lighter and simpler. I used the Victorian Disco Cosmetics Tidus x Yuna duo.

January/Febraury/March Empties

With the end of March just days away, I thought I would update you guys on the products I have used up. I also wanted to get rid of all the empties since I am cleaning my room ;P I think I will be doing one of these at the end of every month  so you guys can see what I have used up and I will have mini reviews for those products. Usually, the best impression of a product is when you have already used it all up.

1. Organix Macadamia Oil Intense Moisture Mask 
I used this hair mask in place of my usual Aussie one, but I like this one much better. This was about $4-5 so it is affordable like the Aussie one, but it left my hair feeling more hydrated and soft. I overall liked this, and I would repurchase it. I didn't like that it comes in a tub though; water can get inside of the container. I also finished it really fast, and I would hate having to repurchase it over and over because I use it up too quickly.

2. Secret gel deodorant
Honestly the only reason I buy this is because it smells really good. But it is not a long lasting deodorant, and I have been trying to look for a better, all-natural deodorant. Any recommendations?

Shiro Cosmetics EOTD: Beyond the Fence

Hello dearies ♥
How have you been? I have another The Hunger Games inspired look for you all today. The arrangement for the colors was inspired by my Vileplume look, except this is much more wearable since it doesn't have those white spots! I REALLY love how this came out! I hope you guys do too :)

A little explanation of my look: I wanted to have the lashes represent the fence around district twelve. On one side is the sunshine, forest, nature, and freedom (the lid). And on the other is the coal mines, poverty and repression (the lower lash line).

Products Used

-Lime Crime Eyeshadow Helper

-Shiro Cosmetics 'Cornucopia' (lid)

-Shiro Cosmetics 'Beyond the Fence' (crease)

-Shiro Cosmetics 'Rebellion' (lower lash line)

-Dolly Wink liquid liner

-Maybelline Illegal Length mascara

-KKCenterhk ES A613 Lashes

Keep reading for more photos...

Revlon 'Fashionista'

Fashionista is a dark and saturated teal cream.

Victorian Disco Tutorial: Simply Orange

Hello lovely readers! How are you all doing?
I am so tired! I just went to a A Skylit Drive concert last night and I am still feeling tired from it!
As I had promised, here is a simple look using the Victorian Wakka x Lulu duo. I kept this to be a simple orange look to match the ever-popular orange/coral trend.

Guest Post: DIY Bentonite Clay Mask

As as a beauty blogger, I wish I could blog more about skin care products. Unfortunately, I am not very knowledgeable in the skin care area. So I am happy to have a lovely guest blogger to show you guys a really awesome DIY clay mask. Today we have Nadège Ngomsi from Atomic Beaute. Thank you so much Nadège for sharing valuable skin care tips with us. Please check out her blog for more DIYs and beauty related posts!

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With as much exposure as we give our faces, masks are a great way to treat our different skin types and skin challenges. Our faces require a good detox once a week to heal after all the makeup and not properly taking care of our skin.

Bentonite clay is here to save the day (in fact, week! This clay is suitable for all skin types. It absorbs toxins, draws out blackheads, kills acne-causing bacteria and is great for spot treatments as well! (Just mix it with a little bit of water). It’s also a great anti-aging ingredient, because it exfoliates the skin, which helps with skin cell turnover.

This following Bentonite mask is a great detox for your skin! 

What you’ll need: 

Victorian Disco Review: Crystalline Affections 'Tidus x Yuna'

Here is another duo from the Victorian Disco Cosmetics Crystalline Affection collection. If you are a Final Fantasy fan like me, you will highly enjoy these :D

Crystalline Affections Collection 

 A collection inspired by Final Fantasy. Specifically, these are duos that represent some of the characters as a romantic couple. Super cute and unique!

Price and Availability

You can find these at the Victorian Disco Cosmetics Etsy store.

Full Size Duo - $8

Mini Size Duo - $4    

(I bought this on sale for $5)

Packaging

The duo includes two colors in small jars. The full size jars have the stickers of the collection on the top. I simply love the sticker design!

EOTD: Girl on Fire

Hi guys~ Hope you are all having a great Friday!
Since I went to see The Hunger Games today, I made an inspired look for Katniss. Let's just the book is always better than the movie.
Yes, there is tons of looks on this already, but hey, one more won't hurt. I also wanted to try out some of my newly acquired products :) I wanted to center the look on Shiro Cosmetic's 'Girl on Fire' and make it look like flames with some hot embers.

Products Used

-Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy (a tiny bit in the center of my lid)

-Shiro Cosmetics 'Girl on Fire'

-Lime Crime ChinaDoll Palette (Fly Dragon Fly, Goldfish, and Lotus Noir)

-Dolly Wink black pencil liner and liquid liner

-Maybelline Illegal Length mascara

-KKCenterhkES A88 Lashes

Victorian Disco Tutorial: Wakka and Lulu

As promised, here is a look using the Victorian disco Crystalline Affections duo Wakka x Lulu. This is a more dramatic look, but I will also do a more subtle look.

Products Used

-Victorian Disco Cosmetics duo 'Wakka x Lulu'

-Dolly Wink black pencil liner and liquid liner

-Maybelline Illegal Length mascara

-KKCenterhk ES A613 Lashes

Tutorial

Victorian Disco Review: Crystalline Affections 'Wakka x Lulu'

Hello dear readers~ I am excited to bring you another Victorian Disco Cosmetics review. This brand has quickly crawled its way into my heart ♥ I love the geekiness of them and of course the eyeshadows themselves. After talking to the owner, Ashley, for a bit I can tell how dedicated she is to her customers and to her business. I highly suggest that you check the VDC Facebook page for daily updates, swatches, and more.

Crystalline Affections Collection 

 A collection inspired by Final Fantasy. Specifically, these are duos that represent some of the characters as a romantic couple. Super cute and unique!

Price and Availability

You can find these at the Victorian Disco Cosmetics Etsy store.

Full Size Duo - $8

Mini Size Duo - $4    

(I bought this on sale for $5)

Packaging

Super cute! Love the stickers on the jars! Remember that only the full size jars come with the stickers.

This is actually Tidus x Yuna but you can get an idea of what the packaging looks like.

Swatches + Review: Shiro Cosmetics 'The Tribute' Collection

With The Hunger Games movie coming out in just a few days, it is the perfect time to review and swatch the Shiro Cosmetics 'The Tribute' collection (yes, I did buy the entire collection with my own money). The collection is inspired by The Hunger Games. I had to purchase the entire collection because I love Shiro Cosmetics and I have also found the books to be very entertaining. I won't dwell much on the matter, but although I do like the books, they contain many literary flawa. And that is besides the controversial issue about the similarities it has with Battle Royale. Actually, when I first read The Hunger Games about a year ago, the short story "The Lottery" was the very first thing I thought about. Anyways...this is not a book review...onto the makeup!

Price and Availability

I purchased the $32.40 mini jar set. 

Each full size jar is $5, mini jar is $3, and a sample is $1.

Packaging

All the shadows come in little jars with a twist lid. I believe the mini jars do not come with the sticker for the collection, but Caitlin was kind enough to put sticker on my jars because I was confused and I had no idea you could buy the stickers separately for $.020.  Full Size jars already include the stickers.

Review

 I will describe each color and describe the formula down below with the swatches. But overall, I absolutely love this collection. Set aside the fact that it is inspired by The Hunger Games, because that is not at all the reason why I love the collection. Anybody could say that it is inspired by so-and-so, but that does not make something awesome. What does make this collection awesome is the colors, formula, and texture of the eyeshadows. I was absolutely AMAZED. I had to compare it a little to my other Shiro eyeshadows, more specifically, the Death Note collection. I thought the DN collection was great, but it had it's own small problems. This collection far exceeded that collection, and my expectations as well. Every color was well thought out and it is obvious the amount of work that was spent making them. The colors are extremely gorgeous, complex, pigmented, and very, very smooth.
One of the biggest improvements is the pigmentation. Most of these are VERY pigmented on their own, without any sort of base. The sheerest colors were Huntress and Wildflowers, but they are lighter colors (they are meant to be understated) and they are only the "sheerest" compared to the other more pigmented colors. So they are still pigmented, just not as much as the others.
 And I must say, the range of colors is really great as well! Very Spring with greens, pinks, orange, gold, and even one blue/purple and silver.

Swatches
*All swatches are one swipe applied with a damp brush on bare skin

Girl on Fire -  very fiery orange with golden sparkles. This color is gorgeous! One of the ones I knew I would love right away. This one was pigmented, not as smooth as the rest because the shimmers are almost glitter-like. Inspired by Katniss.

Baker's Boy - golden nude with tons of sparkle (primarily blue sparkles). Smooth, pigmented, and very glowy. This is a subtle color with a not-so-subtle shimmer~ Inspired by Peeta.

Cornucopia - bright sunshine yellow with golden shimmer. This one is also very smooth, the pigmentation is very good for a yellow, and the shimmer is very prominent. Inspired by the cornucopia in the game arena.

Remake- metallic dirty gold with violet shimmer. This one is surprising and absolutely gorgeous. I love gold and I love purple. Never thought about putting the two together in one eyeshadow. Smooth and pigmented enough to use without a base and still look fabulous. Inspired by Cinna's gold eyeliner.

Mockingjay - metallic coppery bronze. Like Remake, it is pigmented to use on its own and super-duper smooth! Inspired by the mockingjays (I think more particularly the mockingjay pin).

Wildflowers - a frosty, soft pink with shimmers. This is the most girly color in the collection. It is the sheerest of the whole collection, but it is meant to be a soft color. It is very smooth. Not my favorite color, but it fits well with the collection. Inspired by Rue.

Ever In Your Favor - magenta toned pink with darker magenta sparkles. Very fun and girly color. This one is nicely pigmented and smooth, although the shimmers are bigger so it is not as smooth as the others shades (similar to Girl on Fire). Inspired by Effie.

Unforgettable - magenta-tone cranberry shade with red micro glitter. The formula is quite the same as Ever in Your Favor, but this one is actually VERY pigmented. Inspired by Katniss.

Beyond The Fence - metallic olive and gold toned forest green. This is absolutely fabulous. Very pigmented, very smooth! Inspired by the forest outside District 12 (where Katniss and Gale hunt).

Star-Crossed - darkened metallic bronze with slight green undertones.AMAZING! I love this. It is SO pigmented, super easy to use ♥ Inspired by the Star-Crossed lovers Katniss and Peeta.

Rebellion - Raven-feather black (has navy and purple undertones) with green, blue, and purple sparkles! Oh my! This is wonderful! It is an eyeshadow version of THIS Julep polish~ It really does remind me of a Raven's feathers. VERY pigmented. Level of awesome-ness is OVER 9000! Inspired by the rebellion... (>_<" Caption Obvious much?)

Huntress - very pale silver with silver micro glitters. Reminds me of snowflakes. This is a very pale color, but is decently pigmented. The micro glitters makes it so it is not as smooth as it could be, but it is still very manageable. Inspired by Katniss.

Verdict

This collection as a whole has a lot of colors that can suit different people. If you like bright colors, you might like Girl on Fire, Cornucopia, the pink shades and Rebellion. If you like neutrals, there is also a very good amount of golds/bronze/coppers here. Of course if you are a matte lover, then this might be disappointing, but I love shimmer and glitter so this is awesome for me. The most unique shades and my favorites have to be Girl on Fire, Remake, and Rebellion. The prices are reasonable, and I think colors are worth ever penny. Shipping took about 2 weeks or so, maybe less. Overall, I think this is a fabulous collection and you really can't go wrong with any of these colors. You did an amazing job, Caitlin!

Rating: 10/10

Which is your favorite color from this collection? Will you watch The Hunger Games this week?

Guest Post: Sparkly Polkadot Manicure

Today's Guest Blogger is the Nail Diva from aviDlianN~ She is fairly new to the blogging community so let's all make her feel right at home! If you had not noticed, I am terrible at nail art, and I really appreciate people who have the patience and the skill to do nail art! So Today the Nail Diva is going to share with us a totally gorgeous mani!She makes it sound so simple! For more nail polish swatches and more nail art, check out her blog.

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Hello beautiful readers! Let me start off by telling you how quickly I jumped at the opportunity to do a guest post on Nancy's blog. Do I stalk her blog? Yes, most of the time. Am I proud of it? Not very. Will I stop anytime soon? Don't hold your breath! =]
I started my blog off very recently and I'm so happy to be a part of this amazing community of beauty lovers. I love that so many people share a huge obsession with makeup including nail polish. My heart is split equally between makeup and nail polish but I blog mainly about polish (because I'm better at it). But every time I see Nancy's posts I decide I need to buy just that one item. And on continues this never-ending cycle. I'd have to say my favorite cosmetic brand is MAC. I know that sounds cliche, but really they have the prettiest lipsticks and eyeshadows, though I'm not a fan of their foundation. Overall, they're my favorite! So today, I want to share with you a manicure that portrays me and my blog all at once. I hope you like it!

I'm gonna do this like on my blog where I explain and list the things I used in the pictures. For this design I used Gabrini Multivitamin in 314 as my base color. Next, I applied a sheer glitter polish (mine had no label) but you can use a polish like Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Disco ball or any other glitter polish you'd like. Then I used Seventeen Super Shine in 286 to create the dots and the bow. I used a thin brush to paint on the bows. And finally I sealed it with topcoat. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing this for you. And thanks to Nancy a million and one times for letting me be a part of your beautiful blog. And have a great day!
xo Nail Diva
 

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Thank you for being a part of The Dark Side of Beauty! Seriously, props to you for being able to do that by hand. This is just so cute! If I did this it would look like a Wookie had painted my nails and then, in desperation, mauled by finger nails off! xD

If you wish to submit a Guest Post, check the Guest Post Tab.

New Domain!

As I mentioned last week, I got my own domain! this is super exciting for me xD The new URL is up and running now. I am not sure if this will cause weird things to happen on my blog, so if we see anything that is not working or something that is off, please tell me! I still wish to do much more to my blog. I would really love to re-design it, but I am unfortunately terrible at those types of things. Either ways, having my own domain is a step closer to my ideal blog/website!

Thank you all so much! ♥  I hope that I will be able to bring about more changes so stay tuned~

Swatches + Review: Lime Crime ChinaDoll Palette

Did I mention I bought this palette? I don't believe I did...but surprise! I was totally persuaded by the hype of this palette. I was initially not going to purchase it because I have so many eyeshadows. But after seeing so many positive reviews, I convinced myself that I needed more eyeshadows >_<" What a fickle woman I am! If you guys are intrigued by this maybe this review will help you decide whether to buy it or not.

Price and Availability

$34.99 on the Lime Crime website. 

Packaging

The palette comes in a gold paper box that is folded and inspired by an envelope. It is quite cute in my opinion. The back of the box has an engraved seal with the initials LM as well.

Revlon 'Tangerine'