Makeup Talk: Final Fling of 2016! Part 1

One of my Christmas presents this year was an Ulta gift card, which my husband wrapped up in a Sephora box, along with a wrench and a heavy shop table clamp. This was to add weight to the box thus disguising its real contents. It worked, even though I knew he'd simply reused the box my Modern Renaissance palette came in! 

Now you'd think an avid makeup addict like me would have no problem racing off to Ulta and disposing of that gift card, toute suite, right? Wrong, strangely enough! I perused my Ulta Wish List multiple times daily, following the receipt of that gift card. I researched reviews online of all my current favorite items. But my saved favorites slowly got eliminated from my list. Either the reviews were not that good or somehow the items just stopped appealing to me. 

Unbelievably, I weeded off the Tarte Tarteist Pro palette, along with the IT Cosmetics Romantics palette and others. Truthfully, I've no desire for anything from Urban Decay or Two Faced Cosmetics. In fact, I own nothing from Two Faced. At all! I know the reviews for those brands are excellent, but there's just something about those lines that don't entice me in the least. I guess I'm so far out of their demographic, that the marketing just doesn't reach me.

Then I figured out exactly what it was I really wanted. I wanted a Melissa55 Palette. "Whaat? There's a Melissa55 Palette?? Where can I get it?!" you may be asking.

For those uninitiated to the online beauty world, Melissa55 is a member of the YouTube 'mature beauty community' and has a growing channel. 

I subscribe to a good dozen of these mature beauty channels. And I really enjoy these lovely ladies; I have a handful of favorites that I never miss a video that they put up. They are all special in their own ways to me. Sweet, as well as fun to watch. They're in my age group so I can relate to them. They remind me that despite my age, I can still enjoy the things I always did, such as makeup! I don't have to hide it 'in the closet' anymore, because there are thousands of women out there that love it, and love to talk about it, as I do.

The beautiful inside and out Melissa, of Melissa55.
Click on her picture to visit her channel; you'll love her too!

Melissa is my age or possible a year or two younger. But she doesn't look it at all--she could pass for late forties easily. She's one of those beautiful, icy, light-eyed, Nordic-looking blondes. I have wanted to look like that since I about 5, but alas. While I got the light eyes, I'm brunette. And graying, at that. So my 'icy' look is confined to the top of my head!

Unlike most other beauty 'gurus', Melissa has a fondness for cool-toned eyeshadows. They look gorgeous on her and greatly enhance her coloring. I recently remembered being very fond of gray eyeshadow in my younger years. Usually wore a pretty mid-tone gray from lashes to crease and a pale peach from crease to brow. This was back in the 80s, and the shadows were semi-satin, single pans from Max Factor. In the seventies, I wore a very frosty one, Gleamiest Grey by Revlon; anyone remember that one? Anyway, inspired by Melissa, I've developed a nostalgic longing to step away from the prolific 'nudes, naturals and nakeds' and return to my 'gray-shadowed past'. It's a longing for something different.

Melissa recently reviewed the Buxom Stone Cold Babe palette, but didn't care for it that much. Touted as a cool palette, it looked very nice online, but the reviews weren't great. I wanted to see it for myself though. So I headed straight to the Buxom counter when I went to Ulta the other day. I really wanted to like it and get it, especially since it was on sale. But I wasn't impressed with it either. They didn't have a tester, but I could see there was way too much brown in it for me. I wanted silver, gray, greige, stone, etc. Cool as the bottom of a sparkling stream splashing over the rocks. I do 'wax poetic' sometimes...(eyeroll).

I hunted high and low all over the store for gray shadow palettes. Very few brands offer anything at all, if you're looking for grays. Urban Decay has the Naked Smokey, but most of those are way too dark for my liking. Anastasia doesn't offer much in the gray arena, either. I looked at Stila, Fiona Stiles,Bare Minerals...actually I looked at every brand, including the drugstore brands. However, finding myself back in front of the Buxom Eyeshadow Bar, it hit me. Make my own! Of course! Why didn't that occur to me before?! 

Immediately, I began picking out an assortment of gray, charcoal, and other cool-colored shadows. I have to say, the Buxom Eyeshadow Bar has one of the better deals. Yes, it's still pricey, but less expensive to create your own palette, than say with Anastasia singles. And the quality of the shadow rivals Anastasia, too, in my opinion.

With Buxom, for $40, you get 6 shadows of your choice and they throw in the case at no charge. Soon I had created my very own 'Melissa55 Eyeshadow Palette'! Here are the shades I chose below. Let me point out that they were out of a couple of shades I might have greatly preferred to La La Lavish, but it was such a pretty shade, I went ahead and got it anyway. 

Unfortunately, am having an issue with the last iPhone update and it won't let me load photos to my computer so I had to snag online images...

Cool Caviar. Shimmery charcoal with a slight bluish shift.
Not quite this dark in real life.
Image from Temptalia.

Diamond Darling, a warm white satiny shimmer.
Image from Temptalia.

La La Lavish, duo-chrome shimmer with a mint green shift.
I will replace this with something more 'Melissa-ish' later.
Image from Temptalia.

Patent Leather, very shimmery warm charcoal.
Image from Temptalia.

Pure Platinum, very metallic white silver.
The gleam can be picked up from outer space!
Image from Temptalia.

The case for the shadows, very nice quality!
Image from Temptalia.

Image of the custom sliding shadow bar.
Image from CybeleSays

Not shown is Trendsetter, a matte cool mid-toned taupe/greige. As you can see, I have no qualms about using shimmers on my 63 year old eyes. Rules are made to be tossed out the window, right?

All in all, a decent representation of arctic, glacial shades with a touch of the aurora borealis thrown in! You agree this is a fitting tribute to our stunning Melissa55? I hope so!

But the gray binge is not over...stay tuned for Part 2...

Till next time,

"Beauty is a form of genius--is higher indeed than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunshine, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon." ~ Oscar Wilde