purple – BeautyandtheCat's Beauty Blog

January 30, 2019January 9, 2019

The Glow Yup: Review & Swatches of Chaos Kaleidoscope, Force, and Nebula Highlighters

Indie brand Chaos Makeup is well known for its iridescent Kaleidoscope Rainbow Highlighter. Drawn in by Kaleidoscope, I–naturally–added two purple highlighters, Force and Nebula, to my order as well. These formulas are marked by being “glitter free,” 100% pigments, and smooth and dewy as opposed to sparkly/metallic.

**Click to read Hue Light Up My Life: I Tried 5 Colourpop Lavender Highlighters and This Is My Fave.**

Each highlighter comes in a translucent pink seashell if you select the 36mm option. (They also come in 26mm pans.) Very ‘grammable, although I wish the thin plastic shells closed more securely. The glue on one pan also loosened pretty quickly, so the pan will fall out unless I’m very careful.

April 8, 2018April 12, 2018

Hue Light Up My Life: I Tried 5 Colourpop Lavender Highlighters and This Is My Fave

I hoard lavender highlighters like they’re the last northern white rhino on earth. (Sorry, too soon?)

Lucky for my obsessed self, brands are releasing lavender highlighter faster than you can say “unicorn.” Unlucky for me, the hunt for the right one almost feels like searching for a unicorn.

My purrroblem: I have light but very yellow skin (NC15 right now, NC20 in summer). Oftentimes the lavender ends up simply neutralizing my undertones (like a color corrector or one of those Korean tone-up products), making the highlighter look white or baby pink.

The solution: Buy 5 purrrples from Colourpop! Continue reading “Hue Light Up My Life: I Tried 5 Colourpop Lavender Highlighters and This Is My Fave”

February 25, 2018April 13, 2018

Purrrrple Mane Purrple Mane – Dyeing (and Keeping) Asian Hair Platinum Blonde

To start the new-ish 2018 year, I decided to lighten up. REALLY lighten up. So I went from ombre brownish gold to just…blonde. As in Khaleesi blonde. As Asian hair sucks ass to color, and doesn’t retain the color, I sat in a salon chair from 2:30PM-8:30PM. Below is a “BEFORE” of my brassy balayage/ombre ‘do.

As my parents have owned beauty salons for over 10 years, I came in with realistic expectations. To turn brown into light blonde, especially closer to the roots, you have to color for hours and hours. First hair is bleached, slowly, then the blonde shade is applied. It is NOT single processing. Often during processing, the hair color comes out in patches and super uneven. If the developer is too strong, your hair will be super brittle. If it’s too weak, it won’t lift the shades light enough.

I went to an Asian hair salon (Hair Philosophy @hairphilosophynyc) and relied on my fabulous & talented Effie Lei (@hair_by_effie) (please don’t poach her and book up all my appointments m*f*ckers!).

And goddamn she did a great job: Continue reading “Purrrrple Mane Purrple Mane – Dyeing (and Keeping) Asian Hair Platinum Blonde”

September 8, 2016April 13, 2018

A Bunch of Grapes: 5 Purple Eyeliners

Next to a bright lip, colored eyeliner is my favorite way to party up my look. With my hooded lids, the color is just a flash whenever I blink or look down.

I love the color purple (not the movie, although that was good, too), so I’ve amassed a small collection of purple eyeliners (incl. one from Korean brand Touch in Sol). Here they are, starting with my most to least favorite:

NYX Vivid Blossom ($7; liquid)
Stila Royal ($22 if you can find this discontinued gem; liquid)
Tarte Fairy Wings ($21; gel)
Ardency Inn Lilac ($20; pencil)
Touch in Sol Galactic Girl ($16; pencil)

First, swatch heaven:

Continue reading “A Bunch of Grapes: 5 Purple Eyeliners”

September 24, 2014April 13, 2018

Fifty Shades of Purple: Ben Nye Cosmic Violet, Anna Sui Eye Shadow 207, & NYX Eye Shadow Base in White – Review + Swatches

Fifty shades, give or take 48 shades. Renee gifted me two purrrty purrrple eye shadows: Ben Nye Lumiere Grande Colour in LU-17 Cosmic Violet and Anna Sui Eye Shadow in 207 (link is to the very similar shade 201; couldn’t locate 207 online but it’s at the Anna Sui store). I tried them out today over NYX Eyeshadow Base in White, which I bought with the hope that I’ll now experiment with more colorful eye shadows.

The NYX base can be applied sheerly or built up to opaque coverage. It has a dense creamy consistency and dries down to bright matte white. Ben Nye Cosmic Violet is a pearly pink-toned lavender duochrome with an iridescent blue shift. Anna Sui 207 is a dark blue-violet purple with a satin finish. Continue reading “Fifty Shades of Purple: Ben Nye Cosmic Violet, Anna Sui Eye Shadow 207, & NYX Eye Shadow Base in White – Review + Swatches”

August 16, 2014April 13, 2018

Hello, Dolly! Babydoll Cheeks/Purple Blush for Warm Undertones

The centerpiece of babydoll cheeks is a cool-toned pink blush–be it hot candy pink or pastel pink. If you have warm/yellow undertones like me, you might have experienced trouble getting those types of colors to show up true to pan. Yellow undertones can cause tones to skew warm and even muddle cool pinks into appearing peachy or brownish.

The solution? Apply a light purple blush beforehand.

Light purple primers and color correctors are used to neutralize sallow skin, so logically light purple blushes do the same thing–just with more pigment. The purple counteracts yellow tones, laying a foundation for colors to show clearly.

For this post, I used Everyday Minerals blush in Anytime, a matte chalky lavender, as a base for Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush in Dollface, a quintessential pale, babydoll pink.

01 Tarte Dollface and Everday Minerals Anytime Blush — Tarte Dollface and EDM Anytime

EDM Anytime (unfortunately discontinued) is swatched below alongside 3CE Duo Color Face Blush in Creme De Violette (matte, smooth, pigmented) and The Face Shop’s LOVELY ME:EX You Face Blusher in 03 Purple Fantasy (soft, powdery texture with satin finish that looks almost white when built up).

06 3CE Creme De Violette EDM Anytime The Face Shop Lovely Purple — 3CE Creme De Violette, EDM Anytime, and The Face Shop 03 Purple Fantasy

Continue reading “Hello, Dolly! Babydoll Cheeks/Purple Blush for Warm Undertones”

July 7, 2014April 13, 2018

The Color Purple – Bite Beauty High Pigment Lip Pencil in Violet/Lavender violet

Fuchsia lips? Sooooo last summer. Well I still love fuchsia but obsessed with its cousin: vibrant violet!

Behold the Bite Beauty High Pigment Lip Pencil in Violet:

I was at Bite Beauty Lab in soho last week and swung by to see what’s crackin. For the unfamiliar, this is a place where you can mix your own colors and the Bite Beauticians will bake it into your own custom Bite lipstick. Art and personalization and makeup in one! And if you are one of those ladies that are constantly looking for the “perfect” shade of red or nude or whatever: this is YOUR dream come true.

Continue reading “The Color Purple – Bite Beauty High Pigment Lip Pencil in Violet/Lavender violet”