I know I hardly post consistently, but I want it to be known that I am not posting tomorrow, January 18th, very much on purpose. My blog, along with websites across the net, will be blacked out tomorrow to protest SOPA and PIPA, legislation which touts to end piracy, but which actually infringes on our liberty. Take Action. Stop American Censorship.

I hope everyone is having a lovely week, and I’ll see you on the other side.

Originally, this post was going to be about Star Wars: The Old Republic alone. I’ve been playing since the beta and enjoying myself immensely, despite generally not being a fan of “space games.” I’d love to start blogging about SW:TOR as I do WoW (that is, inconsistently — har har). I haven’t felt the need to compare SW:TOR to World of Warcraft, though, because they fulfill different niches for me. But the discourse surrounding SW:TOR’s launch (which I’ve been following mostly in the WoW blogosphere since I read those blogs anyway) has been occasionally troubling and disappointing. Without intending to be insulting, I expected better from such a vibrant and fun gamer community.

There has been a wave of criticism directed toward SW:TOR recently, particularly during its beta and at the time of its launch. This is fine. I take no issue, generally, with criticism. In fact, I think criticism of new media is highly important. It’s valuable for developers to incorporate constructive criticism into a final product, or, in the case of MMOs, to address valid concerns after launch. Providing these sorts of evaluations is what a lot of us bloggers are here to do. The issue I have in this specific case is that the criticism of SW:TOR, while sometimes valid, seems to be entirely — not partly, not occasionally, but entirely – based on comparisons to WoW.

Of course, every MMO which comes out is inevitably going to be compared to WoW. It’s the biggest thing out there. It’s “the one to beat.” In other releases, though, I haven’t seen this level of, well, obsession about comparing everything about a newly-launched MMO to the current behemoth. Nor this level of… vitriol. From what I’ve seen (which, granted, is anecdotal), Rift’s launch was not nearly so besieged. This is not to mention that in addition to this criticism not being based on SW:TOR’s merit as a game independent of 6-year-old, established WoW, the comparisons are often fallacious.

By far, the most frequent one bumping around Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, or what have you, is not a criticism at all, but a dismissal: “SW:TOR is nothing but another WoW clone.” Even in cases where it seems the person feels positively toward SW:TOR, they start with this assumption almost as a given. Generally speaking, the critic doesn’t bother backing up this assertion, taking for granted that it can stand on its own (and, to be fair, “WoW clones” have come and gone in the past so frequently that, yes, the meaning is fairly obvious by now). But on the occasion that the person does cite some specific examples of copying, by and large, they tend to be, in my opinion, tropes or mechanics of MMOs as a genre.

This is why this “criticism” bothers me. In my opinion you cannot run along this line of reasoning, “SW:TOR has a group play mechanic. It has a talent system. It has tanks, healers, and DPS. It has mounts, non-combat pets, and spells,” and still consider yourself to be reasonable if, “It’s exactly like WoW. Space WoW. WoW with lightsabers,” is your final conclusion. Well, I suppose you can, but I certainly won’t agree with you. See, you can’t take any similarities between SW:TOR and WoW and wind up with the conclusion that one is only a pale imitation of the other without understanding that, no matter how much you like WoW, it wasn’t the first MMO out there, and without also understanding that MMOs have some themes and mechanics in common out of necessity.

To put this briefly, you can’t take mechanical similarities between the two and conclude, “SW:TOR is nothing but a WoW clone,” without also transitively stating that, “WoW is nothing but an Everquest clone,” or some such.

With that one statement, I imagine I’ve pissed off just about every WoW fan out there. “Of course WoW isn’t only like Everquest,” they’d protest. “It built off of it!” And here is the crux of my argument. I believe that protest is eminently valid myself. WoW isn’t merely an Everquest clone. It’s an MMO made by Everquest fans who borrowed the mechanics of MMOs we all know and love from Everquest, which probably borrowed them from another MMO, in order to try to make an even better game. Many of these elements, in other words, have been borrowed by SW:TOR only after they were borrowed by WoW from other games. Just because WoW is currently the most popular and largest MMO out there doesn’t mean it “owns” mechanics and themes which are tied to the genre. Sure, SW:TOR does have game elements which are similar to those in WoW. What is being inherently denied by these critics is that most MMOs share these characteristics, and that they didn’t necessarily originate with WoW.

That’s a fallacy. That’s internally inconsistent. I also think the statement itself, “SW:TOR is a WoW clone,” is patently false for separate reasons, but I’ll get to that later. I understand loving WoW, and I understand that perhaps some people aren’t aware that these things existed prior to the blockbuster of market and cultural penetration that is WoW. That said, I expect better from the people I respect in the WoW community. These are not “John Q. Publics” commenting. These are people who are educated in the culture and history surrounding WoW, as silly as that might sound. These are people who I would expect to recognize this fallacy, not commit it.

The second criticism I’m seeing time and time again, after complaining that SW:TOR is no different than WoW in anything but setting, is that some element in the game dares to be different from a comparative element in WoW. “No Dungeon Finder, what’s wrong with BioWare? I can’t change my Advance Class, what is this, the middle ages? I have to watch whole cutscenes to get quests? No addons?” I can’t provide all the examples, because I’d have room for nothing else. The basic idea here seems to be, in contrast, that if SW:TOR is going to have the gall to be a copy of WoW outright, it could at least be a good copy! I’m guessing the inconsistency here isn’t hard to see. First, attack the game for being “just like” another, and then complain that something about it is different!

So, are we to then assume from these comments that there is nothing about SW:TOR which is both novel and good? Of course not. I actually think that most of those who are making these complaints probably are enjoying playing SW:TOR, at least those who have tried it. If this is so, and a lot of the commentary going on on social networks seems to point to that, then what has motivated these two conflicting, and not necessarily valid, criticisms? What has made the fan community so seemingly hostile toward the launch of what is probably the most promising new MMO in several years? We all love games here, right? I mean, I’m literally sitting on Tatooine right now listening to people complain that SW:TOR is just another clone while playing. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, playing a game only to rip on it. If you don’t like it, stop playing. It’s not an affront to you simply because it exists and other people like it. And if you do like it, be able to discuss its flaws maturely, not with insults — why would you want to mindlessly tear on a game you like, anyway?

I suppose these responses could be made misguidedly out of love for WoW, because these comments often seem very defensive. But there’s no reason to be defensive, because there’s no reason you can’t like both. There’s no global rule that only one MMO can be successful at a time. Love of WoW doesn’t excuse the derision and, well, cruelty flung at SW:TOR during its release. We’re bigger than just shouting back “yeah, well, your mom’s fat!” or something equally juvenile just because we feel threatened by something which, honestly, isn’t a threat.

Obviously we’re all entitled to our opinion, but when you see a number of respected members of a community go from discerning, intelligent commentary to flinging insults about without trying to justify them, you wind up asking why. It’s a game, I know. Its feelings aren’t hurt. But it upsets me nonetheless to see people who otherwise could be enjoying a perfectly good game dismissing it for no reason. Giving it a fair shake isn’t disloyal, guys. I’m not saying everyone needs to play it or love it, but don’t dismiss it as a copy. There’s no cogent reasoning behind that.

For my two cents, no, I don’t think SW:TOR is a WoW clone at all. I think it fulfills a much-needed niche in the market — that of a story-driven MMO. Aside from the mechanics it owes to the genre, I actually think it’s quite different from WoW. I’m subscribed to both because I get different things from each of them. Nothing will ever surpass my love for WoW, but that doesn’t mean that SW:TOR isn’t a fun and damn compelling game. I enjoy the voicing and the multi-dimensional story, particularly so the continuing class quests. I like choosing between light side and dark because I think it adds another layer of player customization. I think the idea of ACs is nifty, all the more so because it’s a choice that really matters to your character immediately. I love my companions, which surprised me. The crafting system, while different, is something I think I overall enjoy. BioWare did an excellent job of drawing me in and making me feel epic, right from level one. I rolled a Consular and bam, I was force-hurling space junk at people. That’s awesome. The epic battle music is awesome. Changing the color of your lightsaber is awesome. Getting random titles all the time is awesome.

None of these positives detract from WoW in any way. There are just different reasons to like each. They’re different. SW:TOR wouldn’t have been such a highly-anticipated release if we thought it was nothing new. I don’t understand why it can’t be evaluated separately, on its own merits, without letting nostalgia and “allegiances” get in the way. It’s a game. There’s room for more than one good one. That doesn’t mean SW:TOR has to be the “WoW killer” that people posit every now and then. It’s not an exclusive situation. We’ve only had WoW for so long — at least, for me, it’s been the only compelling option — so having another is unfamiliar. But so what? It’s not the end of the world. We can be mature. We can continue to have productive criticism instead of knee-jerk reactions. We can be balanced.

I understand that a lot of the internet is comprised of extremist rhetoric and trolling, so this sort of entreaty may not have much effect. As that may be the case, I hope this can also serve as a rather long-winded way of saying thank you to all of the awesome and reasonable people writing about games out there, whether you like SW:TOR or not. While a lot of the discourse has me bummed, there are still a lot of good ideas going around. Valid criticism is always a joy to read. You make me proud of part of your community, no matter how along the fringes I may lie.

I’m going to consider it kismet that the day I finally got around to publishing my review of Urban Decay’s Naked palette, Naked 2 was teased for the first time. Perhaps I am some sort of makeup prophetess! Or maybe it was a coincidence. Either way, I ordered Naked 2 “hot off the press,” as it were, the day it launched. So far, I’m very pleased with it! While it might not have been strictly necessary to have both palettes (does one really need 23 neutral eyeshadows?), I find myself using both of them constantly, usually in combination.

As hard as it is to avoid, this review will attempt to isolate the qualities of Naked 2, independent of its cult-favorite predecessor. I’ll be doing a post later on comparing the two. This palette includes 12 full-sized shadows, an exclusive-to-this-palette, double-ended Good Karma Shadow/Crease Brush, and a travel-size Lip Junkie Lipgloss in Naked for $50. I’m also going to toss in my review of the travel-size Eldorado 24/7 Liner I got as a sample when ordering because I think it fits the “theme” so well. Overall, this is yet another palette with tremendously good value and versatile application from Urban Decay.

Packaging

The packaging is incredibly sharp-looking. The case is taupe metal with brown embossing and snaps closed securely. The mirror inside is quite large, and the eyeshadows are nicely separated. Basically, it looks classy. Here’s the exterior:

And here’s the interior:

The packaging is aesthetically pleasing and functional, as well as being secure and slim enough that it’s comfortable to take with you for touch ups. I found no flaws!

Eyeshadows

From left to right:

• Foxy: Matte yellow beige
• Half Baked: Shimmering gold
• Bootycall: Iridescent peach
• Chopper: Glittery copper
• Tease: Matte dusky brown
• Snakebite: Shimmering dark brown
• Suspect: Shimmering gold beige
• Pistol: Shimmering dark greige
• Verve: Shimmering greige
• YDK: Shimmering dusky bronze
• Busted: Shimmering burgundy
• Blackout: Matte black

Pardon the copy-pasta, but my opinion of these eyeshadows is just as high as with the original Naked palette:

I have always loved the texture and color payoff of UD eyeshadows and these are no exception. They’re soft and blendable with admirable pigmentation; this goes for both the metallic and matte shades, which is awesome. Foxy is slightly chalky, but definitely usable. Even without a primer, I didn’t notice any fallout — with one exception. Despite being a color I’d like to use, Chopper has such large pieces of glitter that it winds up all over me even when using a primer. It’s workable, though, and one shadow out of twelve with issues is hardly cause to complain, though, when the rest are so sublime.

What bears saying about these shadows is the amount of flexibility they afford you. From cool to warm, from shimmery to matte, from highlighters to contours, these colors cover so many bases that you can create a ton of looks to suit any occasion. The palette does tend toward the cooler end of things, but I can’t imagine these not working with every complexion. This is another unparalleled everyday palette from Urban Decay — kudos!

Lipgloss, Brush, Eyeliner

As a pleasant surprise, I enjoy the “auxilliary” items included with the palette almost as much as the eyeshadows! With a lipgloss, “two” brushes, and an eyeliner, all I’d need for an on-the-go, basic look would be a blush. I’m becoming more and more impressed by Urban Decay each time I try a new product. They’re quickly becoming one of my staple brands.

I’ve never used an Urban Decay lipgloss before, but I’m definitely open to them after trying out Naked, pictured above. It’s an iridescent, neutral pink that is light enough alone for a minimal lip, but which would also look lovely layered over any number of lipsticks. It’s a flexible color, in line with the “Naked” theme. Here’s a swatch:

And here’s it on me:

Definitely a flattering color! It’s also mint-scented and tingly on the lips. I’m not sure what else to say other than that using it is pleasant, and I think it’s a good, basic lipgloss.

I am also ecstatic that this palette came equipped with a flexible brush. It’s double-ended: on one end is a flat shadow brush, and on the other is a fluffy crease/blending brush.

This is an excellent brush. It’s cruelty-free, which is always a plus. I find myself reaching for this even when I’m not using this palette. Seriously, I can’t find anything to complain about. The flat end is great for packing shadow on the lid or liner work, and the crease brush is wonderful for blending. Really excellent. This reminds me why I should invest in more good brushes.

While this isn’t actually included in the palette, it was the sample I got when I ordered it, so I consider it relevant! Eldorado is a shimmering gold eyeliner that looks somewhat similar to the Half Baked eyeshadow above.

Here’s a swatch on my hand:

I have one other Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner (it’s green!) and I think they’re just excellent. They’re smooth to put on and last for ages. I personally like to use this under the eye when doing a gold-based look. Be warned, though: I’m fairly cool myself, and on cool-toned complexions it might look slightly washed out or jaundice-y.

Sample Looks

I initially tried to showcase one daytime and one nighttime look for this palette by doing one on each eye. When I processed the photos, though… it was completely unclear that there was much of a difference between the two. On the left is a brown-y daytime look and on the right is a more pewter evening look. At least, that’s what I was going for:

Here’s a close-up on the right eye/night time look:

For the daytime look, I used Suspect and Snakebite on the lid and Bootycall to highlight. For the nighttime look, I used YDK, Verve, and Pistol on the lid, and carried pistol underneath the eye. I have a fairly light hand, so often what I think of as “dramatic” comes out looking pretty manageable, but these colors can definitely look more striking than in the photos above.

Overall Verdict

As with the original Naked palette, this colors in this palette are incredibly versatile and… just excellent in every way. I can see this becoming a new staple for many, myself included! Whether you should invest in this already having the original is a question I intend to address in my comparison post (though I suppose that, given I own both, my opinion is fairly obvious), but Naked 2 definitely holds its own as a standalone palette. These shades are more on the cool end of the neutral spectrum, but are still eminently wearable on different skin tones. As with the original, this is a tremendous value: to buy all of the shadows individually would cost over $200, and that’s ignoring the fact that several are exclusive to this palette and that there are “extras” included. In my opinion, you just can’t go wrong. A worthwhile successor to a fan favorite!

Obligatory more-attractive shot from my birthday!

I know I’m two weeks late on breaking my hiatus (and wishing everyone a happy new year), but Mochi has been ill, so I hope you’ll forgive me. He’s feeling much better now, so let the blog posting re-commence! My tropical getaway was very fun, and I’ll probably be posting some pictures from Hawaii and Hanukkah to my Flickr shortly — most of the upcoming posts will probably be about my makeup and SW:TOR holiday fun, though! Ringing in the new year with my boyfriend, my Jedi Sage, and egg cremes, what could be better?

I hope everyone had joyous holidays, and is enjoying 2012 so far. Cheers!

I’m off to tropical locales sans internet, so I won’t be posting for two weeks. Happy holidays, all!

Having recently detailed a tale of foundation matching horror, let me now share a tale of makeup love and perfection. After returning Chanel’s Perfection Lumiere, I wandered around Nordstrom’s trying to decide where on earth to start looking for a new prospect. On my way to the Armani counter, my eye was caught by the beautiful packaging over by Burberry. So, what the hell? I gave it a shot.

This was the best decision I’ve made recently. I honestly don’t know why I didn’t think of Burberry earlier — it’s based in England, they clearly must support people who are ludicrously fair (har har). The artist quickly matched up with Burberry’s Luminous Sheer Liquid Foundation in Trench No.01, which despite the name is a rather medium-coverage foundation which comes in a variety of really-light to slightly-less-light shades (very encouraging for pale girls like me!)

As soon as she put it on me, I was pretty much in love. As someone who frequently is relegated to “the lightest shade they offer, and it probably doesn’t really match,” I’ve finally found a foundation which goes light enough for me. This is brilliant. It’s also buildable, and affords good coverage despite being described as sheer. It does exactly what a foundation should — it eliminates my redness and lets me start with a blank slate. It also has a pleasant luminous finish which catches the light nicely.

Here’s a swatch on my hand:

And here’s a look at the packaging without the cap:

Independent of the formula, which, seriously, I love, the packaging is incredibly luxurious and attractive. The unusually long cap with the Burberry check has a good heft to it and shuts with a satisfying click. The pump is user-friendly and locks, which is an amazing quality of life improvement for travel and even daily use. It’s beautiful and functional, my favorite combination.

Basically, I can’t say enough good things about this foundation. I’ve had it on for around seven hours now, and I still think it looks really presentable. Excellent!

To illustrate the difference properly matching foundation makes, here is no-makeup icky-Lauren versus Lauren with Chanel Perfection Lumiere:

And here is the same bare-faced Lauren versus my Burberry end look:

Granted, once I saw the color cast of the Chanel I didn’t bother finishing the rest of my makeup, but the difference in just the skin tone is amazing. That’s the color my foundation should be.

The rest of the makeup in the Burberry look I managed to walk away without… with the exception of the amazing lipcolor. Meet Burberry’s Lip Mist in Blueberry!

I may have been doomed as soon as I saw the adorable patterning on the lipstick itself. The packaging was bad enough! The lipstick casing is just as cute and functional with as the foundation — the cap is magnetic in this case, which is a feature I’ve grown to love via Armani.

The shade is a cool blue-red which looks, well, pretty much like blueberry juice. It’s sheer but buildable, and very wearable. Here’s a swatch on my hand:

Overall, I’m pretty sure this won’t be my last Burberry purchase — with such a wearable and enjoyable collection, I’d be hard pressed to not recommend these products and pretty much any others I tried. Excellent!

This not the review I anticipated writing when I bought this product. I wound up returning it, but let’s start at the beginning. After hearing many glowing reviews for Chanel’s discontinued Pro Lumiere foundation, I decided to try the new Perfection Lumiere which had been billed as a sort of “spiritual successor” to Pro Lumiere. Since I’m very, very fair, I typically try the lightest shade available for foundations. Being pale can be a hassle, but since I live my life mostly in a state of computer-lit hermithood, the chance of me tanning is somewhere between 0 and -1. Bonus: I don’t have to buy a different foundation for the summers! At the counter, I tried the two lightest shades they had: Beige 10 and Beige Rose 12.

While my face is fairly red, that’s not something I really want to emphasize. The the 12 not only made me look even pinker, but was far rosier than my neck and chest. Given this, I decided that the 10 was my best bet. Under the lights I had access to, it actually looked pretty nice. I ran outside for a quick look, and it looked pretty good. Reviewers had mentioned that this foundation didn’t tend to play nicely with dry skin (which I have, particularly in the winter), but the texture was fairly matte and pleasant. I bought it ($55).

Here’s a shot of the packaging:

Really lovely, brand-consistent packaging. Easy to use pump applicator.

Here’s a swatch of Beige 10 on my hand, from the pump on the left and blended on the right:

It’s here that astute readers may begin to see the issue. To further illustrate, I will provide two pictures side by side: one of me sans makeup (yeesh, that hurts to post!) and one of me wearing Chanel Perfection Lumiere.

While the foundation did get rid of redness… it also made me horrifically yellow. It may not show too well on the small photo, but the color was horrible. It looked like a bad mask, or like I had jaundice. I have no idea how I didn’t catch this when I was in the store. In addition, it really didn’t play well with my skin. Even though I moisturized and primed as usual, it emphasized my skin issues instead of camouflaging them. I had to take it back.

That said, your mileage may vary. The texture is pleasant, it has a light rose scent, and it covers well (I’d say medium coverage). The color really did horribly for my pale skin, though, and it wasn’t kind to thirsty skin, so I returned it today to find something that suited me better. Given that Chanel tends to have a limited color range, be wary that the color which seems like it “has” to match (i.e. the lightest, for me) may just… not.

I hope others will have better luck with this foundation than I! I was really very excited about it. Bummer.

I was planning on writing some posts about the recent “faction bias” and “SW:TOR vs. WoW” debates, but, uhhhh… patch day! So, instead, I’ll be fumbling my way through new heroics and crying over yet more dailies to do. Hooray! Enjoy transmog and void storage, everyone!

Almost two months ago, my boyfriend bought Urban Decay’s Naked Palette for me after seeing me drool over it every time I dragged him to Sephora. Two months is an unusually long time for me to wait before reviewing a product, but I’ve been really reluctant to write this post because I wasn’t sure I could adequately describe just how much I love this palette while also not parroting all of the reviews which led me to get it in the first place.

Everyone loves this palette — and for good reason. I’ve heard people speak of Holy Grail items before, and never really gotten it. However, in the time that I’ve had this palette it’s easier to count the days I didn’t wear one or more of these shadows than the days I did. I get it now. This palette includes 12 full-sized, incredibly versatile shadows, the Good Karma Shadow Brush, and a travel-size Original Eyeshadow Primer Potion for $48. I don’t think any other palette has done neutral better, or for a better price.

Packaging

The packaging is stylish and uncharacteristically indulgent for Urban Decay. Complete with velvet and gold foil, this palette ditches UD’s typical “edgy” style for pure class and luxury. It’s as much a pleasure to look at as to use. Here’s the exterior:

And here’s the interior:

The packaging is simple and elegant designed. The shadows are nicely separated (unlike the Tarte for True Blood Limited Edition Palette I reviewed before) and the folio is slim enough to carry around if you’re planning on applying while out and about. That it includes a brush is just icing on the cake.

Eyeshadows

From left to right:

• Virgin: Iridescent pale beige
• Sin: Shimmering champagne
• Naked: Matte beige
• Sidecar: Glittery beige
• Buck: Matte taupe
• Half Baked: Shimmering gold
• Smog: Shimmering bronze
• Darkhorse: Shimmering brown
• Toasted: Shimmering pinky taupe
• Hustle: Shimmering maroon brown
• Creep: Shimmering silvery black
• Gunmetal: Shimmering blue grey

I have always loved the texture and color payoff of UD eyeshadows and these are no exception. They’re soft and blendable with admirable pigmentation; this goes for both the metallic and matte shades, which is awesome. All of my prior UD shadow experience has been with crazy, sparkly colors, so I’m glad to know they rock at neutral and matte shades just as much. Even without a primer, I didn’t notice any fallout — with one exception. Despite being a color I’d like to use, Sidecar has such large pieces of glitter that it winds up all over me even when using a primer. One shadow out of twelve with issues is hardly cause to complain, though, when the rest are so sublime.

What bears saying about these shadows is the amount of flexibility they afford you. From cool to warm, from shimmery to matte, from highlighters to contours, these colors cover so many bases that you can create a ton of looks to suit any occasion. I can’t say it enough: this is an unparalleled everyday palette.

Primer, Brush

This being only the second eyeshadow primer I’ve used, I can’t really say for certain how good it is compared to the competition. However, based on the reviews I’ve read, it seems to be a staple and generally well-regarded. It also comes in several shades aside from the original sampled with the palette, which does give it an advantage over Tarte’s Lifted primer (the only other I’ve tried). Otherwise, I can’t say why I’d prefer this one over another — I tend to use the UD primer with UD shadows, and the Tarte primer with Tarte shadows. Regardless, this is a nice product and I’ll probably pick up a full size when the travel size runs out given how often I use these shadows.

The brush, on the other hand, is not my favorite. Well, that’s not really fair. It would be better to say it’s not my favorite eyeshadow brush. It actually performs fairly well as a concealer or cream shadow brush, but for powder shadows I prefer a bushier brush. The tip is good for linear detail work, but since it’s flat and relatively thin it doesn’t pick up enough shadow for general use. I use my Bare Escentuals brushes with this palette instead. That said, the construction is nice, and it’s cruelty-free. It’s a fine brush to have in a pinch, but I think it’s better suited to other applications.

Sample Looks

Since this palette is so versatile, I took pictures of two example combinations, one for daytime and one for nighttime. For the daytime look, I used Naked and Half Baked on the Lid and Virgin as a highlighter at the brow bone, followed by a top line and mascara.

I cropped in close here (taken in artificial light):

Pretty basic, pretty light, not terribly edgy. Still, neutrals are great for daytime, particularly for office or interview situations where a louder or more exotic look would be out of place. They’re also good if you’re shy about loud colors, not that I would know anything about that, wink wink, nudge nudge.

On the other hand, I’ve been trying a smokey eye (which takes me considerably longer than pretty much anyone else on the planet, I think) for nights out, and the result is considerably more dramatic. For the particular iteration below, I started with Buck as an overall base (including some on the bottom lid), Darkhorse just on the upper lid, and Virgin along the brow bone. I lined the top and bottom with my usual liner (Bobbi Brown’s Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in Sepia Ink), and then smudged Creep in over the liner close to the lashline on both the top and bottom lid. Then, I put on fantastic false eyelashes, which made me look 10x less like I accidentally punched myself in the face and 10x more like I intended to look this way.

Observe (taken in way more flattering lighting):

Clearly, these are two totally different looks, and don’t actually have any overlapping colors, but my main point is to illustrate how tremendously useful and attractive neutrals can be under varied situations. These make me feel like I can do anything (as demonstrated by how totally acceptable my smokey-eye looks, despite being only my second attempt).

Overall Verdict

I love this palette. Have I mentioned I love this palette? If you haven’t been totally steamrolled by my effusive and probably excessive praise, then you probably didn’t actually read any of this. I can’t think of a better example of how many different and interesting combinations of “brown” there are. I’ve never liked neutrals. Now, I wear them almost every day. It’s just that good. And don’t just take my word for it — on every review blog or site I’ve frequented, people just can’t say enough good things about it. Even if you’re a neutral skeptic, for the price, how can you go wrong? To buy all of these individually would cost over $200, and that’s ignoring the fact that several are exclusive to this palette. Seriously, if you don’t have this yet, I can’t tell you how much you need it.

Obligatory more-attractive shot! (Also, oh my god the 50mm f/1.4 is the best thing in the whole world that isn’t this palette.)

Today’s Breakfast Topic on WoW Insider was submitted by yours truly! It was inspired by my adorable 11-year-old cousin, Noa, who has always loved to watch me play WoW, and now has an account herself. I plan on writing an expanded article on these issues as we continue to play together — while WoW isn’t kid-friendly in its base form, it’s definitely possible to create a safe experience within the game.

Link: “How do you adapt WoW for younger players?”