Delightful Illusions

         Hi, guys! Today's post is very exciting because I am talking about the amazing progress I made on my Pan Those Eyeshadows 2020. I apologize for the late progress, I have been very busy with work since I am frontliner. Anyway, I have hit pan on 4 shadows that are included in this project and 1 bonus pan the past month. I feel like one of my talents is to hit pan on eyeshadows as I do it well and often considering that I am light-handed. 

         Finally! I have hit pan on this dark shimmer green which took me an eternity to hit pan on. Haha! If you have seen in my Pan Those Eyeshadows 2020 Introduction, you know that this eyeshadow has been in here since the beginning of the project. It feels so satisfying to reach the pan of this eyeshadow since this is not the type of green I would reach out. I focused on this shadow the previous month and I am so happy that I reached my goal. I have used this 27 times since January before I have hit pan on this.

         This is my color story for this round. It is kind of similar on my previous updates since warm shadows and greens are always being selected. Haha! I will find ways to use of all these shadows in a look and I will take pictures on the looks I will create. 

         How are your project pans doing? I hope you are all safe and healthy. I am enjoying this project and I feel so happy to hit pan 5 eyeshadows in a month since that rarely happens to me. I have an upcoming review on eyeshadow palettes that I recently bought and I am so excited to play with them. Did you have fun with this post? I hope you did since I was so excited to share this progress with you. Thank you for stopping by. Have a nice day. Stay safe.

        Hey, guys! How are you? I hope you are all safe and still participating in the quarantine. As for me, I have to work since I am a government employee assigned under a social work department. I am kind of happy about that since I can wear makeup and have progress on my project pans, but I am also kind of worried for my health since I'll be exposed to people. Anyway, I'll be sharing with you today my thoughts about the Focallure Matte Lipsticks, the ones that look like chubby pencils. I have reviewed several Focallure makeup products in the past year and I like all of them. If you are interested on what I think about these lipsticks, just keep on reading. 

          Chesnut is the darker nude in this kit and is perfect for work makeup. This pairs really well with smokey eyes that I always do since the neutral tone balances the rest of the makeup on my face. This has a hint of orange, just a little bit, and I think it would suit a lot of skin tones since it is opaque and covers my dark lips. I have applied lip balm underneath this lipstick but this is good on its own.

          This nude pink shade is so pretty and I know a lot of you will like this particular lipstick. I love how I can pair these with smokey and light eyeshadow looks. This is also suitable for everyday wear at work or school. It doesn't make me look dead, which is really important in formulating nude lipsticks, by the way.

         Now, this Nude Desert lipstick is the best example of a perfect nude shade. It so light, barely there, but somehow doesn't make me look dead. This is the shade that will best  pair with those dark smokey looks. If you looking for the best nude lipstick, grab this one. This is the lipstick that made me say this is really thick and pigmented; it covered my dark lips with 2 layers. It doesn't look patchy on the lips even without a lip balm.

         Lastly, I would like to mention this dark warm brown lipstick that looks so grungy and my most used out of the four that I own. I always pair this with smokey looks and I love the kind of edgy, bad bitch, and grungy feeling it gives me. If you love brown lipsticks, I think that you will love this as well. 

          Hey, guys! If you have seen my previous post, you know that I tried to dupe the Melt Cosmetics Gemini Palette. I had fun doing it and so now I have also tried to dupe the Huda Beauty Nudes Obsessions Light Palette from my current eyeshadow collection. In all honesty, I don't feel like buying from Huda Beauty at all because they seem so shady; copying marketing strategies, allegedly stealing product ideas and releasing them ahead of companies who originally came up with the ideas, and just the fact that their products are unnecessarily expensive. I have noticed similarities from two palettes that I own to a couple of palettes that company has released. The fact that these palettes have been released before the Huda Beauty palettes made me think that they were inspired by the palettes that I am about to mention.

         Way back in the last quarter of 2019, Huda Beauty released 3 9-pan palettes that are definitely similar to their larger palettes. These are the fairly new Nude Obsessions eyeshadow collection which are kind of the mini versions of their larger palettes. The Light Palette caught my eye because  it contains mauve, pinks, and lavender shades that are redundant in their recent releases. It's like they made the people buy their overly expensive palettes and just a few months later, released mini versions which are still expensive. This company is so repetive.  Ugh!  Anyway, I have noticed that I already own the shades from the Light Palette that's why I did some swatching and realized that people don't need to buy this palette anymore since these are fairly common shades. I stumbled upon this gorgeous photo from @skaanderup95 feauturing the swatches of the said palette.

          I noticed that the Focallure Perth Palette and Sweet As Honey Palette contain shades that are close dupes of the ones from the said palette. I consider these two palettes as sisters since one has more shimmers, metallics and glitter shade while the other has more mattes that are complementary to the former. This Perth palette was released last year around the month of June and I bought this immediately because of the color scheme. As I have said earlier, I noticed that the are shades that can be dupes and these are:

          Some of the shades can be found in this Focallure Sweet As Honey Palette. This palette was released last quarter of 2018. When the Huda Beauty Retrograde Palette was release, I can't help but think that it was inspired by this palette. This palette has more muted matte shades and popping shimmers, and the Retrograde Palette has more of pop of colors. It's like they took inspiration from the color scheme of this palette and tweaked some shades so it won't look so similar. I know Focallure is known for duping makeup products and selling those for affordable prices, but since Huda Beauty is such a shady company and I love this palette, I am gonna be shady too. I think that they took inspiration from this palette. My mind can't be changed. 

          This is a sister palette of the Perth Palette and some of the shades from the Light Palette can be found here as well. These are the following: 

         Lastly, that lavender with gold shift shade has a dupe I found on the Sleek Oh So Special Palette which is still one of my favorites. This palette was released most probably 10 years earlier before the Light Palette came out. Sleek more likely has the original idea and their shadows have nice pigmentation and texture which is consistent through the years. In the Oh So Special, the shade is called Gateau and is lovely all over the lids. If you have this palette, don't buy the Huda Beauty one anymore because they are the same. Save your money, people.    

          What did you think of my dupes, guys? I know mine is a lot warmer and darker, but I prefer this color palette than the one from Huda Beauty. These three palettes are cheaper combined compared to the Huda Beauty palette. Are they insane? Why is a 9-pan palette $37 dollars? That's a total scam. I know I sound so hateful but I am really just not buying the bullshit that some of these so-called "high-end" brands have. If you are like me who doesn't want to waste so much money on makeup that would definitely expire in a couple of year, definitely shop your stash and hunt for some dupes. 

        I had fun doing these type of posts and searching for dupes that I already have on my collection. I might do another one soon since I determined in helping you save money and buy affordable alternatives. These are mad times and we better save our money for necessities, not wants and vices. I hope you enjoyed this post and I have lots of posts that you can read as well while your are on quarantine. Thank you so much for stopping by. Have a great day. Stay safe. 

         Hey, guys! How are you? I hope you are all safe and doing the quarantine because this virus is not a joke at all. Please take care and do what's necessary so the virus would stop spreading and pray that we could go back to our normal lives soon. I am currently working from home since I can't get out of my town and I am kind of getting bored. I already miss going out and wearing makeup.

         For today's post, I am going to talk about a palette that I feel like was inspired by the Melt Gemini Palette which was released I think last 2018. This palette became famous immediately because it has the unique and eye-catching combination of mustard and green eyeshadows and give off grungy makeup looks. To be honest, it caught my eye too, I  just don't want to pay 58 dollars for a 10-pan eyeshadow palette. This even expensive than a Jeffree Star Cosmetics eyeshadow palettes. Why is this so epensive?

         I purchased this IMAGIC High Heels palette last year November because I was so drawn with the color scheme since I really love green eyeshadows especially the olive ones. The Tango shade (matte olive) was the one that caught my eye, the one that I fell in love immediately, and so I ordered it without second thoughts. Then, I realized that this palette seems so familiar, like I have seen this before. I remembered that the Gemini Palette has the same vibe and I realized  that High Heels was  inspired by this palette. I can't call High Heels an exact dupe because some of the shades have different finishes and a couple of colors were not included on the palette.

          To refresh my memory, I went to Instagram and browsed for the swatches of the Gemini Palette and I saw this post from @lizddagerbeauty. Basing from the photo above, I can tell that some of the shades from the High Heels Palette are close enough to be dupes, while tothers are different because they made a different finish. I don't have the Melt one so I did my best to compare my palette based from the picture and selected the shades to swatch to see if I can recreate the vibe. Obviously, the Melt palette has a greater quality; so pigmented, vibrant, and seems like has a buttery texture. IMAGIC has a nice quality too, but I needed to layer the eyeshadows a few time to mimic the opacity that the Melt has. 

         Hey, guys! How are you? I hope you are all safe from the virus and doing the quarantine smoothly. I still go to work since it is necessary, but I'm taking all of the precautions that was imposed to us. Please take care of yourselves including your mental health. Anyway, I will be updating today my Pan In Everything (PIE) Project Pan which I started in January. Basically, this project aims to hit pan on all of the makeup products you have and it goes on for as long as you have an item that you didn't hit pan yet. You can read my introductory post to know more about the background of this project and to see who created this project. :)

           Since I started this project, I have hit pan on 3 products and I have rolled-in new products to hit pan on. I have been focusing on my pressed powder face products such as highlighters, blushes, bronzers and contours since I don't want to include eyeshadow products in this project. If you are interested, I have a project dedicated solely to hitting pan eyeshadows called the Pan Those Eyeshadows. It's a fun project where you can create different color combination and just be creative with your eyeshadow looks.              

          I love this as a highlight on my cheekbones and I think this one of my top highlighters from collection. I love golden pink glow that it gives on my skin and the fact that it doesn't emphasize blemishes and texture on my face. I will miss using this but I still need to utilize other highlighters from my collection. I have hit pan on this after 3 uses and I used it for another 3 times before rolling it out on the project. 

         Oh my gosh! This product is immortal. I have used this a lot since I bought this back in 2017 and I still haven't hit pan on it. This gives a natural glow and is very suitable for work especially on a formal setting. I still like this but I'm kind of getting tired of this highlighter since I currently love glowy and blinding highlighters. I try to use everyday and pairing this with a different highlight so I won't get bored. I have used this 20 times ever since I started this project and who knows when will I hit pan on this. I'll just go with the flow I guess. 

         Last but not the least, I have rolled in this rose gold highlight as a replacement for the Vice Cosmetics Contour in the shade Porshur. I layer this on top of the Essence Pure Nude Highlighter and I love the golden glow the pinkish gold glow that it gives. As you can see, I already made a dip and might hit pan on this real soon. Let's see about that.

           So these are the products that are currently in this project and I am happy that this project is going on smoothly for the most part. I am also proud of my self that I am currently consistent in posting my project pan updates since I haven't done so in past years. Haha! I feel so motivated to post more on this blog and I have ideas on the products I will feature in the future. I hope that you enjoyed this post and if you have anything to say, feel free to leave a comment. Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like my content, you can follow this blog to stay updated on my upcoming posts. Have a nice day. Take care!