A Blast From Halloween Past

Ever since I was a kid, Halloween held a special place in my heart. Let's skip the variety of reasons and go right to the silly reason. It was because during a time when most nail polish companies were afraid to put out a black, Wet n' Wild stepped up to the plate and every Halloween would release black nail polishes. Since they costs about $2 (sometimes a dollar on sale), I'd buy 2-3 bottles. They were the only nail polishes to date that I'd finish.

Moving away from New York for some reason meant a reduction in Halloween makeup items. Now maybe it's because retailers have more investment in Christmas so they start moving products for Halloween off the shelves before Halloween has even hit. Some don't even get Halloween items in stock and just skip it entirely in lieu for the sweet Christmas payout. For the Halloweenies, like myself, this leaves quite the scramble. This year, a few stores had some of the Wet n' Wild lineup, but not everything.

Going through my stash I found some classics in there. 

Behold! I still have a Black Pearl nail polish, an old tube of black lipstick (old packaging!), and a MegaSlicks in a translucent shiny... white? The MegaSlicks is not officially part of the Fantasy Makers line; if memory serves correctly, this was their first venture into the glow in the dark line without focusing too much on glow in the dark. As a result, it wasn't released as an official Halloween item. I could be wrong as my memory is a bit fuzzy about this item, but I do remember buying it with some other glow in the dark products years ago (I'm talking about almost 10 years ago).

So here are some old notes I have about them because I remember buying them for an Undead Bride costume. The nail polish... well it chips easily. Years of using this nail polish has taught me that much. I recently purchased a Zoya in Raven to replace my constant dependence on this nail polish. It gets the job done if you only plan on painting your nails black once but if you're looking for a long term solution, try OPI or Zoya.

The black lipstick is quite pigmented but not enough. I wore the lipstick without any liner (this was just a test run, not the final look). I can't remember if it lasts but luckily I'll have the chance to find out this Halloween since my new costume is Edward Scissorhands. 

The "translucent" lip gloss-- well, it's not quite translucent. To me it smells like a sugary blueberries whereas my friend said it smells like Sweet Tarts. It has a lot of hints of green in it which was really hard to capture in the light. While it seems a bit odd on it's own, I highly suggest pairing it with the black.

Below you can see the black lipstick with the lip gloss dotted along the back in the center. I think that together they look amazing (but you can be the judge for yourself.

Unfortunately I can't find these products online for sale, but if you have a local store that carries Wet n' Wild then you might be able to find them there. Please keep in mind that the packaging for the lip gloss and the lipstick might have changed. All the items are sold for under $5 each.

Review: Wet n Wild Mega Shield Lip Color SPF 15

One of the things that drives me slightly insane with my local drugstores is that if I see something, I need to get it right away or else it will fly off the shelf and never be seen again. Or something in my colour will fly off the shelf and never return. When I first saw these I thought to myself, "I have an awful lot of lipsticks so I don't really need this," then a few days later they were all gone. Some of the colours have slowly been restocked, but "A Currant Affair" has not returned. That's Berry Beautiful did and that's why you're seeing this review.

Let me get the rant off my chest though. Given the packaging, there is a giant piece of tape that keeps the lid onto the base. So when I finally got the tape all cleaned off, I managed to nick off the top of the lipstick because there's a small part that does not retract into the tube. It's silly, I know, and probably not a mistake others have made but be careful when you open and close it especially since there's a good part of the top that is exposed.

The first thing I noticed right away was that the lipstick is very creamy. I glided on a bit and realized that it was very pigmented which was quite nice. I quickly realized that I needed to apply some lip liner in order to keep it defined so I grabbed my e.l.f. Essential Feather Proof Moisturizing Lip Liner in Bitter. The two blended well together so I was saved in my haste to try out the lipstick.

So it's now applied and my lips are lined and what do I notice? Well, I notice that a cool red is showing up as a darker pink instead on my face. (Thank you yellow undertones, I appreciate you taking away the joy from every lipstick possible). I know that in the picture above one might think that it is actually pink, but the tube is supposed to be a bit on the red side. Think about a pinkish red blend, moreso on the red, but not a true red colour. I'd say crimson, but a bit lighter. Or maybe Razzmatazz (and yes, that's a real colour). If you don't believe me (which you have every right to), I'd advise checking out Nouveau Cheap's Review and Swatches.

Okay well, I admit that I really didn't like the colour. I was on the fence about it, but I've got to say that I'm not a fan. But that does not mean that I'm writing off the rest of them in this line. Unlike some other lipsticks, I feel as though this line has potential and somewhere in there is a colour -- no, the colour that I am looking for. The lipstick glides on well, has great pigmentation (if you look at the image above, that is one swipe after 2 hours), and felt great. Now I just need to wait for my local drugstore to stock up on the other colours and then I can continue my quest.

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Product: Wet n Wild Mega Shield Lip Color SPF 15 in That's Berry Beautiful
Price: $2.99
Would Recommend? Yes (even though the colour I got I didn't really like).
Takeaway: Creamy, smooth consistency that leaves your lips feeling moisturized with good pigmentation. Terrible packaging. While I personally didn't find a good colour due to the lack of stock at my local store, I'll keep an eye out for others since this tube impressed me.

A Collection of Black Pencil Eyeliners

I am the biggest sucker for the cat eye look and I have been for years. Unfortunately this also means that I end up racking up quite a few black eyeliners -- some that work and some that fail miserably. Later on I'll go over my extensive cat eye routine (which still needs work). However tonight as I was searching for lip liners, I noticed a few more black eyeliners that were hiding in my train case. 

I couldn't remember why they were shunned though it was very likely due to the fact that I moved and didn't get my makeup kit right away so I had to replace things. But that gave me the idea to try a few of them (just swatches). I ended up finding out some interesting things not just about the eyeliners in question but also my eyelid primer. ಠ_ಠ

But first, just to get this out of the way -- the pencil eyeliner that I use for my cat eye look is the Sephora Nano Eyeliner in Midnight Black. I also use a liquid and/or cream eyeliner but I'll get into that another time. It's highly pigmented and easy to control which is exactly what I need when my brushes aren't doing their job).

Onto the four black pencil eyeliners that I found!

Yeah. So the first thing I learned in this experiment? e.l.f. Essential Eyelid Primer in Nude is not for me. That is the reason behind the ashy appearance in the photo -- and yes, I slathered it on my wrist to prove it. So I can add that to my donation bin.

Moving on!

The top row is the liners on the e.l.f. primer whereas the bottom one is without the primer. From left to right:

1. e.l.f. Essential Brightening Eye Liner in Ash
2. Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Liner Pencil in Jet Black #061
3. stila convertible eye color in Onyx
4. Wet 'n' Wild Kohl Kajal Brow/Eyeliner Pencil, Black #651

Overall remarks is that with the primer, all of them except for the stila were actually harder to put on. They have a sleek and smooth look to them but three of the four were I had to really press down to get the colour. Which is fine for my hand but I wouldn't want to do that near my waterline.

The interesting observations range. For the e.l.f. eyeliner it's actually gray -- not black (which I know) but without a primer, it goes on black. A bit on the light side, but still could pass for a black. When I tried it on, I quickly remembered what the downfall was and that was that it was not long lasting for me. Now with the primer, the real colour comes out which is a gray.

The Rimmel is okay but it feels too messy for some reason. I'm going to try a cat eye with it in the future to see how it actually holds up. To be completely honest though, when compared to the stila, it fails -- but but it next to e.l.f. or the Wet 'n' Wild it looks amazing. (You can grab this liner at Ulta for $3.19).

The stila looks perfect except that I've used it on the cat eye look, particularly for the triangle and I've seen it vanish in an 8 hour day. I love how smooth and pigmented it is, but that fades and it cannot hold the look. It also couldn't hold up decently on my waterline. Thus this would be great for the eyelid but not the waterline or not if you wanted something defined (like the corner flick of a cat eye).

The Wet 'n' Wild is... well, it looks bad and I'm sure that I wouldn't want to experiment with day looks with it because it's not very pigmented.

After I narrow down the hunt for the mascara, I will probably begin messing around with the eyeliners to see how well they hold up. So perhaps they will make it into the rotation.

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Product: e.l.f. Essential Brightening Eye Liner in Ash
Price: $1
Would Recommend? No
Takeaway: Tends to fade so it's not long lasting. Primer seems to brought out it's actual colour of gray which is weird because when it's applied without a primer it comes off as black.

Product: stila convertible eye color in Onyx
Price: $22
Would Recommend? Yes, with caution though.
Takeaway: Great for your eyelid but will not hold up on your waterline. It may also get messy so if you're aiming for something with definition, this probably isn't the liner to use.

Product: Wet 'n' Wild Kohl Kajal Brow/Eyeliner Pencil, Black #651
Price: $0.99-$5 (Depends on where you find it).
Would Recommend? No.
Takeaway: Not as pigmented as the others and given that, it looks more like a dark gray than a black.