Ermagerd Divergent Makeup at Sephora!

I just finished the Divergent series last week, and the ending was terrible.  Not omigod-you-can't-do-that-to-the-main-character terrible, just plain terrible.  I'm okay with characters dying, or else how could I love A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones)?  I have high hopes that the movie trilogy will change the third book entirely.  You heard me, Summit!  PLEASE DO WHATEVER YOU WANT TO THE ENDING OF THIS SERIES.  Whatever you come up with will be infinitely better than what actually happens, I'm sure.

Rambling aside, ERMAGERD GUYS DID YOU SEE THAT SEPHORA IS MAKING MAKEUP BASED ON THE SERIES?!

Oh. My. Glob.

AGH!  I mean, the colors kinda don't make sense, but overall I'm excited.  Should they have had someone actually research the book first before developing this?  Yes.  I mean, where's a bright red lip gloss to symbolize Tris wearing crazy makeup when she becomes Dauntless?  No?  And what about the palettes representing the factions?  I see Dauntless/Candor Black and Erudite Blue, but no Abnegation Gray (the whole palette is rather Abnegation-y neutral), Candor White, or Amity Red and Yellow.  The titles are good, though. 

All that nitpicking aside, you can bet I want this so hard.  I'm a sucker for packaging, and I don't have any neutral palettes or cheek palettes, so this set is actually a really good value for me.  And the brush has the "Divergent" logo on it, which is cool.

Are you gonna be grabbing this set when you can?  :D

And since this is still on my blog's first page, let's check out some SUPER BELATED PRODUCT PHOTOS!

My most-used piece of the entire set!  The color on the left, "Transform," is my go-to inner crease shadow.  STILL.  TO THIS DAY.

Overall, I was very pleased with this set.  EXTREMELY PLEASED, even.  I don't use any of the glosses, they were pretty terrible, and the brush has fallen apart after a year, but I still use the blush end because why not?  It's a good brush, even if the whole 'dual-sided' thing didn't quite work out.

The blush palette was exciting at the time because I didn't have any, but now it's rather meh.  The eyeshadows overall are what you'd expect from Sephora, but the shades on the left (Diverge, Transform, Choose) are pretty much UD Moondust shadows, which is SO EXCITING.  I literally use Transform every day in my inner crease.  Erry day.  It's that lovely.

LUSH is the best ever!

I'm ghostly pale, which means my face is extremely sensitive.  Everything pisses my face off.  I can't wear any powder whatsoever, and my quest for the perfect primer and foundation is ongoing. 

I made a post two years ago about my epiphany moment with Burt's Bees, and I'm here to say that I was wrong.  Well, not completely wrong, but mostly wrong.  Burt's Bees was of course better than what I had been using, but it still wasn't good for my face.  It did a good job clearing up my redness, but it wasn't helping so much in the pimple department.  It's only 95-99% natural, after all.

So there I was, my face STILL pissed off, and didn't know where to turn for better face care.  I mean, Burt's Bees was the best I could find without having to make my own stuff at home!  I'm pretty lazy, so that wasn't going to happen.  What could I do now?  Live with it?

No, my friends.  I went to Lush.

This encompasses how I feel about Lush.  If I were a better artist, the unicorn would be sparkly and be shooting the rainbows out of its eyes as lasers.  But alas, MS Paint and clip art unicorn for you today.  Yes, it has a penis.

Lush Cosmetics is the best thing that ever happened to my goddamn face.  There's SO many products, and I can honestly say I've tried almost all of their moisturizers (still not sure which I like best), most of their cleansers, and can accurately say my face loves me.  If only I'd stop putting makeup on it, then it would be completely blemish-free.  But, c'mon.  That's not gonna happen. 

Here's my LUSH regimen:

1.  In the morning, I slather my face with 9 to 5 in the shower and then skip steps 2-4.  This saves a lot of time since I don't have any makeup to remove.
2.  In the evening, my first step is to take my eye makeup off and wet my face (I use Neutrogena extra sensitive remover cotton pad thingies).

3.  I then get out my Clarisonic and smother it with a good helping of Ultrabland.  After my Clarisonic's done and its white brush head is completely the color of my foundation (good god that was all on my FACE?!), I wipe my face with a damp cloth until it comes up clean (even MOAR foundation omg face I'm so sorry).
4.  Exfoliate the shit out of my face using Ocean Salt. 
5.  Spritz Eau Roma toner all over my face (about 3-4 spritzes).
6.  Cover my face in the holy grail known as the Full of Grace bar and massage that shit in.
7.  If I have any problem areas (usually my chin and eyebrows--I think my beloved Dior eye pencil breaks me out nooo), I cover them with some Grease Lightning.
8.  Slather face with moisturizer.  I've tried Celestial, Imperialis, Enzymion, Vanishing Cream, Cosmetic Lad, and Gorgeous, and am currently using a mix of Imperialis and Enzymion.  Vanishing Cream broke me out (yeah, it doesn't really make sense), and I'm going to give Celestial another go when I run out of Enzymion/Imperialis.  I really don't think Gorgeous is different enough from the others to justify $90 for a moisturizer. 

BONUS steps for smexy lips:

I also slather a bunch of the Mint Julips on my lips to exfoliate them, and then cover them with Lip Service.  I have buttery lips in the morning!  Until I put lipstick on.  Sigh, it's a process.

I also love how their packaging showcases these dueling rabbits.  Because animal cruelty sucks.  Unless it's a duel, then that's out of our hands.

Do any of you use Lush?  Have any products you'd like me to review?  Let me know!

Weekend Look!

What, I actually left the house this weekend?!  Yes, dear readers, it is true.  After four losses in a row playing League of Legends, the Mister and I decided that we wanted to experience the outside world and partake in delicious food made by other people.  Had I not taken two hours to get ready, perhaps the restaurant wouldn't have been full when we got there. 

But at least I looked fabulous.  I'm wearing Bonfire Spirits by Fyrinnae on my lids, with a pinch of Strike from Urban Decay's Vice 2 palette on my inner crease.  My lips feature Lime Crime's Retrofuturist, which I'll make a lengthier review about sometime this week.

Here's a closer look at the makeups (forgive the abysmal lighting, Missouri has been overcast for the last month and I'm so done with it):

I love Fyrinnae's eyeshadows so much!  They're so, so SPARKLY!  But they're taking over my vanity.  It's overrun with little jars of eyeshadow samples that I really, reaaally need to press. 


That's it for today!  Stay sparkly, my friends!

AND SHE RISES AGAIN

Hey, my toasty friends!

I have recovered from my two-year funk, and I am READY to bring you the awesome content once more!  I've renamed the blog Leslie Pwny (so I'm like a pony, but with more pwnage), as the whole "Metal Marshmallow" thing never made sense.  Also, the focus will sadly no longer be on Metal.  I'm going to focus instead on the beauty/fashion aspect of my life, but will still keep it Metal with random music videos and announcements that excite me.  I won't be reviewing albums seriously anymore, but if I think something is awesome I'll tell you about it as coherently as possible (maybe).  The blog is going to focus more on me personally, so I shouldn't abandon it so easily this time.

I'm also going to enter into a blog-partnership with my friend Carissa, and a new blog will likely be created from that.  BUT, seeing as how this is somehow still getting pageviews, I'll continue to do this as well. 

I'm going to do some major swatching this weekend, and you can see a teaser photo below!

Also, what kind of makeup looks would you guys like me to do?  I'm open to suggestions!

Kat Von D Travel Eyeshadows!

Oh, Kat Von D.  I wanted to love her new travel-sized eyeshadow palettes, but the colors just don't excite me.  They're the perfect size for travel, though, and are a nice fraction of the price of her full-sized palettes ($20 compared to $36).  The packaging is awesome, too.  It's got a cool design on the cover, and has a rubberized texture that feels good in the hand.  The shadows are also the same size and pigmentation as what you find in her full-sized palettes.  So, there's that.  

The Little Sinner palette.

First, let's talk about the Little Sinner palette.  The colors are very matte, which is a bit strange since most of Kat's palettes have super sparkly shadows.  Also, what in the world is going on with the colors here?  Red, green, white, and NUDE?  Hardly Sinner-like.  Where's the black?  WHY IS THERE NO BLACK?!  Seriously, these colors make ZERO sense.  I'd imagine a travel-sized Sinner palette to have white, grey or silver, purple (red or blue would also be acceptable), and black.  But perhaps people would stop buying the full-sized Sinner palette if the colors of this one actually made sense.  Oh no, we can't have that.  We don't want new buyers up in here, no way!

I was also disappointed that the white color (Swansong) seems to be different from the Swansong used in her super rainbow Mi Vida Loca palette.  Swansong in the Loca palette is a goooorgeous white with purple iridescence.  Very noticeable.  But the Swansong here is just...white.  I checked.

The Little Saint palette.

Next, there's the Little Saint palette.  This is the one I ended up purchasing (though I never buy any of Kat's Saint products), because the colors are just better.  There's blue, purple, bronze, and nude again.  Because this is the Saint palette, the nude color makes sense (so I won't quibble with it).  I also surprisingly like the bronze color.  The purple and blue are what really sold me, though, and I'm glad I bought it.  It's still not the ideal, as I still have to bring along a black and silver eyeshadow from another brand, but oh well. 
 

BOTTOM LINE, The Saint palette makes for a good travel smoky eye if you bring along your own black eye shadow, which I did.  Drugstores have lots of tiny black/silver duos, which would finish this palette off nicely.  

The palette is quite sturdy and travels extremely well--it survived being tossed around in my makeup bag while I was on vacation.  So, if you want Kat Von D eyeshadows for your next vacation, pick one of these up.  They're of the same quality and great pigmentation you'd expect from any Kat palette.  The colors are just weird.

<3


 

Lyriel review!

And here's my review of Lyriel's new album, Leverage.  I loooove it!  I can't stop listening to it!  My review is also featured at The Metal Pit.

 
I wish I had found German Folk/Symphonic Metal band Lyriel before now.  Their newest album, “Leverage”, gives me serious eargasms.  Lyriel describe themselves as ranging “from dreamy ballads, a pinch of medieval tunes, to heavy rock songs with elements of classical and Celtic folk music.”  This is very accurate, and the mixture of all these elements on “Leverage” is extremely polished and thoroughly enjoyable to listen to.  The album finds a great balance of metal, amazing vocals, folky string instruments, and anthemic choruses.  There’s always something interesting going on here; there’s never a dull moment in the instrumentation or vocals.  Vocalist Jessica Thierjung sings equal parts elf maiden and siren seductress, sometimes a mixture of the two.

That said, fans of really heavy, fast metal may not like Lyriel.  Fans of female-fronted metal, symphonic metal, and folk metal will most likely find a lot to love here.  I’d definitely give it a try regardless, especially on a gloomy day.  The extremely anthemic choruses are sure to pick up your spirits and make you bob your head in glee. 

Songs to listen to:  Leverage, Voices In My Head (heaviest on the album—there’s some harsh vocals!), The Road Not Taken (Yes, the Robert Frost poem.  It’s AMAZING), Aus Der Tiefe (most folk-y of the album).  They’re all good, really.

Rating:  8.5/10

Burning Shadows review!

Tom Regan of Burning Shadows asked me to review their upcoming album months ago, and I finally got around to it!  It's also located at The Metal Pit.  I found a lot to like with their new album, but overall couldn't get over the vocalist sounding like Danzig.  But that's not to say you shouldn't check them out, because you should!  Support local Metal!

 Burning Shadows are a power metal band hailing from Washington, DC.  Their upcoming sophomore album, “Gather, Darkness!” is due for release in June 2012.

The opening instrumental, “Hymn to Sathanas”, takes me back to my Playstation One RPG-playing days, which really sets my expectations for epicness!  And the following track doesn’t disappoint, opening with a classic Schaffer-esque anthemic intro.  The guitar work is awesome, and I can definitely hear some Jon Schaffer influences.  Vocalist Tom Davy reminds me of Glenn Danzig, which may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your tastes.  

 

Burning Shadows have arranged “Gather, Darkness!” in an interesting way; the album only has three huge songs, but the songs are divided up to make 11 tracks.  This is not so good for those of us who like to listen to our music on shuffle, or if you don’t like hearing the same chorus for 15-or-so minutes.  The storyline of the songs seems pretty epic, though, if you like concept albums that tell a sweeping story.

On their website, Burning Shadows describe themselves as “inspired by American power metal pioneers Iced Earth and Jag Panzer . . . Masterminds Tim Regan and Greg Jones, rhythm and lead guitar, respectively, have been the steel core of the band since its first days. Conservatory-trained drummer David Spencer provides thunderous power from behind the drum kit. Tom Davy joined the band in 2009 on lead vocals, ready to crush the false and slay the weak with a soaring vocal range that simply is not matched in the DC area.”  

I definitely agree with this (especially the guitarists—they’re really great!) up until the vocalist’s alleged range.  He sings pretty much the exact same way for the entire album, and with songs that are 15 minutes-ish long, no variation in vocals makes things drag.  A few times I hear him in the background singing higher, but it’s mixed so far behind the “regular” voice that it doesn’t add enough variation.  But he sounds like he can do it. 

Songs to listen to:  Hymn to Sathanas, A New Dark Age, Man From Myth (probably my favorite on the album), Kingdoms Fall, The Infamous Dawn

Rating:  6.5/10