Two Stila 2011 BCA Palettes: Swatches & Photos

On this sunny Sunday afternoon, I thought the light was right to finally bring you swatches and photos of the two Stila BCA Palettes for Breast Cancer Awareness month in 2011.
Some of my favorite bloggers did a collaboration series of pink FOTDs that I think would be amazing for you to check out and be inspired by!
Ebru
Kayla
Jessica
Tiffany
Danielle

If I've missed anyone from this wonderful series, my apologies! Please let me know below in comments.

As you definitely know if you've been reading my blog for a couple of months, I love to collect the Stila Travel Girl Palettes.  Several were released this year, including two promoting Breast Cancer Awareness.  These both include a face chart look and a mirror like the other palettes released this year.

 I believe one is an Ulta exclusive: empowered in pink.  It is a set of three matte, neutral purples with a sparkly dark purple, and two light-to-medium pink blushes (one matte and the other with some shimmer).  I was surprised when I swatched them at how purple these shades all became; as you can see from the palette photos the shadows appear to be more putty-colored.  These colors should work for both warm and cool skintones.  Purple is a color known to complement all eye colors as well.  This palette is certainly universally flattering!

Eyeshadows, clockwise from top left: believe, strength, courage, support
Middle cheek color: pink, Bottom cheek color: ribbon (it's no illusion, pink is the matte version of nearly the same shade in shimmer, ribbon!)

Ribbon is the far right blush color swatched

The other, positive and pretty, is available from stilacosmetics.com or sephora.com.  It has an ivory with a tiny bit of silver sparkle (great highlight color), a pink-ivory matte shade which would make a great blending color, a super-pigmented and unique salmon color with subtle sparkles, and another super-pigmented cranberry color with subtle sparkles.  The salmon and cranberry were the most pigmented of all the BCA palettes eyeshadows.  The eyeshadows in positive and pretty, unlike empowered in pink, are true-to-pan.  I think because of the two ivory tones, this palette is going to be more useful for those with light to medium complexions.  I think it also leans more warm.

Sorry this photo is a little dark.
Eyeshadows clockwise from top left: gift, passion, beauty, positive
Middle cheek color: pretty, Bottom cheek color: empower

See how gorgeous that salmon color ("positive") is?

The blushes between these two palettes are rather similar, except for the darker of the positive and pretty palette ("empower") is slightly deeper and more plummy.  The eyeshadows and blushes kick up a lot of powder, unfortunately, but the color is easy to build up and the quality is otherwise there so I can ignore this one negative mark.

Even if you don't collect the Stila Palettes I think these are excellent.  The value is great ($14), I love that they are about BCA and give some percentage for charity (I'm sorry I don't know how much).  The pigmentation is strong (though not up to par with Stila's core line) and the color combinations are both well-thought-out and wearable.  Please pick these up and consider doing a BCA post of your own.  You won't regret it if you read the series mentioned above by those beautiful bloggers and think about donating to this cause!

Find Your Magic

It was about 82 degrees Fahrenheit outside when I took these pictures, and no, they are not a holdover from a bygone summer day.  After so many chilly, rainy days we had a gorgeous, sunny Saturday, October 8th.  The husband and I went shopping for some kitchen supplies, groceries, and a really cute sweater from Express:

I got a size or two up so it fits even slouchier on me, with my silhouette peeking through in a matching cami.  It's just the kind of cozy/sexy hybrid I'm looking for this Fall!  But, of course, I threw on a summer dress for today's heat wave:

Dress: F21 like $7! Necklace: Jewelmint

Makeup Breakdown: Eyes and Cheeks are the Stila Find Your Magic palette, plus Urban Decay 24/7 liner in 1999 on upper lashline and waterline, and NYX Fly With Me Mascara.  Lips are Milani Lip Flash pencil in In a Flash topped with Liplicious Lip Gloss in Cookies and Scream.

I hope everyone is having an amazing weekend!

FOTD: Maybe Roxy will Return Stila's Love

Elated Friday to all! Monday is my "Company Holiday" so I have a long weekend! So stoked <3
Here's my Round 2 FOTD with the Stila loves Roxy Palette. I think I knocked it out, what say you?

That's my car in the background, oops!

 Face: Origins Vitazing, Boscia BB Cream applied with a Beauty Blender, E.L.F. Personal Blend Mineral Foundation in Light applied as powder, Rimmel Stay Matte in 001 Transparent patted on top.

 Cheeks: NYC Matte Bronzer in Sunny to contour, Stila loves Roxy Gold Coast on apples of cheeks, Stila loves Roxy Swim lightly dusted on top of cheekbones.

My skin is sooo bad. PMS breakouts abound.  I don't currently own a full-coverage foundation, so I like to layer light-weight formulas to keep it comfortable.  It also helps the light formulations last on my oily skin.

 Eye Method: I applied TFSI, followed by "beach" on the inner corner of the eye and just beneath eyebrows.  Next, I dusted "bronzed" on the inner 1/2 eyelid up to the crease.  In the inner crease I applied "bikini" in a swishing motion.  On the outer lid, outer crease, and outer 1/3 of lower lashes I packed on "water." The waterline and outer half of the upper eyelid were given a bit of smudgey Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner in Oil Slick (black with silver glitter).  The line was kept as thin and close to lashes as possible on the inner half of my upper eyelid.  Lastly, I curled my lashes and applied a couple coats of Benefit BADgal black mascara on top and Clinique Bottom Lash mascara on the bottom lashes. Garnier Tinted Eye Roller is diminishing under-eye circles and puffiness.

Clockwise from Right: E.L.F. Studio Contour Brush (thanks to Stephanie C. for her review!), MAC Lustre lipstick in Lush Amber (a sheer beige nude), Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Oil Slick, Stila loves Roxy palette, Too Faced Shadow Insurance (TFSI), Benefit BADgal lash mascara in black, Clinique Bottom Lash mascara in black, Jill Stuart Mirror

EOTD: Subtle Morning Sunrise with Stila loves Roxy (and a bonus quickie-review)

Hey'all! Quick EOTD to show the Stila loves Roxy palette on my eyes.  I was surprised that the peaches looked so similar on and more pigmented than my swatches suggested.  I started this EOTD with the face chart instructions, which just wound up being a waste because the peaches were muddled on my lids. I ought to have just tried the gradient look.  I used the shade "water" on my lower lashline, but I did find it a bit too sheer.  In person the effect is definitely a watercolor makeup look, but a lot of the pictures I took just made it appear to be blue under-eye circles!  This palette can't just be slapped on in the morning (in contrast, I wore Love and Empower yesterday, which looked just fine applied quickly and to face-chart specifications).
I'll do a redo-run with this palette tomorrow and I'm sure it will turn out better!

Winning: L'oreal Voluminous Carbon Black Mascara. Like the Roxy palette, it also takes a lot of care with application (to avoid clumping), but it is super-black and volumizes quite well - I just wish it had held my curl. Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara in Black  =  <3 ('nuff said!).

FAIL: Benefit Realness of Concealness Kit. First of all, it doesn't have a decent spot concealer, just Boi-ing, which I already see sliding off and creasing under my eyes three hours after application.  Ooh La Lift did diminish puffiness a little bit but I already have eye cream, moisturizer, foundation and concealer to put on, so why would I want to pack on yet another product?  High Beam is sooo inferior to Girl Meets Pearl (which I love). There is no discernable highlight on my cheekbones where I dabbed it. Lemon aid doesn't do anything to color correct on me (probably because I'm already kinda yellow) and is making my shadow crease. The Lip Plump is not bad, but to be honest I enjoy reapplying lippie. I would totally return this kit if I didn't get it as a GWP. End Rant/Bonus Review.

REVIEW: Three Stila Travel Girl Palettes for Autumn/Winter 2011

Over the past couple of months, I've been collecting the non-Beach Girl Stila Travel Girl Palettes.  Not including the two for BCA, I have:
love and empower (The Help movie tie-in)
stila loves ROXY (presumably for the Fashion Week show)
find your magic (Holiday 2011)

Love and Empower retailed at $29 ($75 value, they claim) in a set with Lip Glaze in Apricot (not pictured here).  Stila Loves Roxy and Find Your Magic are both the regular price of these palettes at $14 each.

love and empower shades (clockwise from top left): love, empower cherish, dignity
Cheek Colors (from top): hope cheek color, joy bronzing powder

Love is a nice brow highlight in the vein of MAC Brule; empower is a subtle golden beige; cherish is a sparkly, cool brown that I think would make a better crease shade blended with love, rather than as liner as the face chart suggests; dignity is a really lovely rose color similar to the one in NARS Grand Palais duo.

Stila loves Roxy shades (clockwise from top left): beach, bikini, water, bronzed
Cheek Colors (from top): gold coast cheek color, swim bronzing powder

The Stila Loves Roxy palette shades are different from the Love and Empower palette shades because they are a gradient of peaches capped off with a cool, almost purpley blue.
I personally wouldn't follow the recommendation of the face chart and try to line my upper lashline with water, the cool blue shade.  Though it's the most aptly named of the four shadows, it's got some of actual water's transparency and it just won't work as liner.  I think it would be better used to create a subtle blue smokey eye, or along the lower lash line with a gradient peach look up top using beach, bikini, and bronzed (more like "peached!").  I think this palette wouldn't show up on a girl with a tan, which is odd.  I bet it would look really lovely on girls with fair or translucent skin.

find your magic shades (clockwise from top left): shine, twinkle, starry, magic
Cheek Colors (from top): love cheek color, shimmer bronzing powder

The shadow called "magic" in this palette, is anything but: I think it may be the biggest dud of all the palettes released this year!  It basically just doesn't show up at all.  The other three cool shades (shine, an icy white-lavender; twinkle, a charcoal blue; starry, an ashy plum) aren't exactly my cup of tea but I bet this would look great on dark-haired, cool-toned ladies with brown eyes.  On me these shades look a bit sickly or disappear, but I think a deep-skinned woman might see magic as a highlight/blending color and the ashen shades could make an unexpected-color smokey eye.

Note: all swatches of eye shadows in this post over Too Faced Shadow Insurance

The value and quality of these is akin to the rest of the Stila Travel Girl Beach Palettes of Summer 2011.  I've done looks with some of the Beach palettes here, here, and here. 
The products all kick up quite a bit of powder and are a little dry, but smooth and fairly pigmented for what amounts to a "bargain price" for the Stila brand.  This is not a luxury experience, but they are superior to several similarly-priced eyeshadows and blushers from the likes of Maybelline (not eye studio), Revlon, or CoverGirl.  Lasting power is solid over a primer.

I swatched the blushes over Boscia BB Cream:

Left to Right: Love and Empower palette hope & joy; Stila Loves Roxy palette gold coast & swim; Find Your Magic palette love & shimmer. Gold Coast and Love are sparkliest.

I don't think joy or shimmer are bronzers at all! Swim might be, if you like your bronzers orange!

Joy is more of a highlighter or light blush, Gold Coast is more of a shimmery gold bronzer than a blush, and Shimmer is most definitely a highlighter.
Misleading product descriptions aside, I think these are all lovely, blendable colors with no repeats!

The packaging of these is very cute, in my opinion.  It's not over-the-top adorable or childish.  Stila girls look a little bit like fashion sketches.
I don't think these are must-haves by any stretch, but it's fun to collect them and the colors are well-coordinated and quite wearable!  If you like no-brainer looks (as I do at 6AM before work) these are handy and I recommend them highly if you don't mind the compulsion to collect them all. You can't have just one!