Review: LORAC's Little Black Palette

Ok, product review time! :)

My relationship with Lorac has been limited. By limited I mean my love for it limits itself to one product and one product only. The brow liner. And that's it. I, for the most part, am not convinced with their product or the pricing of their product. So I usually skip over Lorac when in Ulta or Sephora. Yet this week while I was browsing the kits and palettes that ULTA had for viewing I found this little thing here:

The kit retails for $32 and it includes four pretty large baked shadows and a sample of their eye primer. The packaging drew me in and since I was testing everything else I figured I'd test this. I was surprised... no, SHOCKED that these shadows were not only super pigmented but they were creamy and fantastic. I had to swatch all of them all over the back of my hand much to the sales girl's distress. I didn't even notice the primer, honestly, I was so excited about the shadows. I calculated the price per shadow and it comes to $8 a shadow. I pay almost twice for a MAC one. So I decided to set aside my issues with LORAC and buy the palette. After sneaking it inside the apartment (since I'm supposed to have started a new makeup fast) so the bf wouldn't see it, I happily started playing with it.

I took some pictures of my journey....

As you can see, these colors are just gorgeous. So gorgeous I decided to swatch them:

These shadows are so creamy and "blendable" that I had to imediatelly do a look with them:

See? SO in love with it! Now, let us talk the primer. I used the primer for the look above.

One, I LOVE the squeeze bottle. If you were to purchase the primer on its own it's $20 but it's a squeeze tube. Two dollars more than Urban Decay and you dont have to get all Medieval on the bottle afterward.

Two, I love how rich it is. It's richer than Urban Decay which means I need less.

Three, holds pigment. I did the swatches and the look with the primer and it really pops the shadow.

I have not used it all day to see how it does with creasing but I'm not a good judge of that since I dont have oily lids at all and most primers work for me. But I'm taking my kit with me to Seattle and I plan to testing that baby this week.

Overall? I think it's fab for $32. All four shadows are simply divine, I still refuse to believe this product came from Lorac. Either they've stepped it up or the box and items are mislabeled ;)

You can purchase this product here:
http://www.loraccosmetics.com/p-135-font-colorcb0000-size1newfontbrlittle-black-palettebrfont-size1eye-shadoweye-primerfont.aspx

Note: I might be a bit quiet this week because I'm traveling, sorry!

Review: Miss Selfridge Gossip Girl Collection

Please keep in mind that these are my opinions and I'm giving an honest review. I have not been asked to do this nor have I have I been sent any of the merchandise.
 
Loving Gossip Girl blatantly for the fashion and then for everything else I was excited to see what Eric Damon (the show's designer) was going to create for the girl's looks in this line. I saw the dresses this morning (the entire collection is dresses, if I'm not mistaken) and I've got some thoughts.

Overall, I'm honestly not impressed with the collection. For starters, though I am a fan of black myself, I feel there's too much black for this collection that is launching as Summer quickly approaches us and people are looking for more color than anything else. With the exception of one of Blair's dresses all others are either all black or have black detail Secondly, I'm not sold on these really fitting the character's personality that much. Now, I understand that all this has to be toned down for it to reflect a 'wearable' adaptation of the show so I will let that one slide.

Let us begin with Serena:

I think the first dress fits her character to the T. However, I'm not convinced about the second one, at all. The first one is a reincarnation of the ever so popular "bandage" dress by Herve Lager. Though it suits S I honestly feel it now feels dated; this is something I would've been excited about a year ago. Does this make sense? I'm also afraid of the many people who shouldn't wear this dress who will happily stuff themselves into it. I can't say much about the second one, mostly because I've seen similar things in Ross. And I have to say that Serena wears a lot more color than this, even her formal dresses tend to be nude-hues or blues.

The Blair look:

The first dress is very similar to something my Blair would wear, the floral is lovely and very summery. The Blair looks look more like Spring/Summer to me than all the other girls. I think the colors chosen are fun and bright and happy. Let us talk about this second dress. While I admit it's just adorable and dainty I'm pretty sure this is more of a Jenny-style circa Season 1 (before the black eyeliner) and I'm also pretty sure I've seen this exact same dress in Project Runway, I think Season 3.  To me Blair often looks a lot more like a 40's screen siren than anything and though dress #1 is lovely I dont think it's a good representation of her character. Blair is the Queen B and to me these lack the 'presence' her show attire reflect, that Upper East Side bitchy-princess is lacking in the translation.

On to Jenny

I think the looks fit adequately her punk-rock chick look. I actually adore the first dress, it's my favorite of the entire collection. I love the lace and the tier detail and I would totally wear it... IN THE WINTER. Sorry. I would wear it with some tights and booties and hot pink polish but definitely not something I would get during this time of year. I've got no comment on the second dress, it's just not my style at all.

and finally Vannesa

I dont think I mention enough how much I dont like animal print. So that settles my thoughts on the first dress, it is something Vanessa would wear though. The second dress is better but again not something I'm impressed with, I've seen similar ones in Ross or Forever 21. Though these are things she would wear if I'm not mistaken Vanessa wears a lot more color than this; perhaps some purple or yellow in there?

Over all, these are OK dresses, I dont think they're anything particularly special and MUST HAVES. I think that Anne Sui had more interesting designs for the Target line and even fit their characters more. I have to say I'm disappointed, I really love Eric Damon, he seems like a sweetheart and I've loved the designs he's created for the girls on the show. Like the dress he made for Jenny in the season 2 premiere was gorgeous. So a bit of a let down but oh well, what can a girl do?

Your thoughts on the collection?