Makeup News and Reviews: LORAC Solid Gold Palette and a quick OOTD

Inspiration struck this morning when I opened up my newest bit of joy.

The LORAC Solid Gold Limited Edition Eye Shadow Palette.

I saw this on one of my favorite blogs last week: Nouveau Cheap.

The author, G, mentioned that Ulta was selling these fabulous holiday palettes at Ulta for $12!  

Shut up and take my money.

I calmly proceeded ran like a mad woman to an Ulta the next day and snatched up mine.  There is another 5-pan palette of cool tones and purple shades.  I tend towards warmer shades so I stuck with the Solid Gold palette.

I knew that these palettes were a great deal because LORAC shadows are UH-MAZING.

Let’s just see what damage I’ve done to my LORAC Pro Palette…

Yeah.

It’s love.

I use this bad boy almost everyday.  A whole row of mattes…  a whole row of shimmers… It’s a must have.  

Anyway… back to the Solid Gold.

When I swatched the shadows in store I was a little weary…. The three first colors were nice, very pigmented, soft, and shimmery.  Beautiful.  The last two were more of matte shades and the pigmentation was... lacking.  Sometimes the display palettes at stores have been touched and prodded and who knows what else that a simple swatch just doesn’t show the true beauty.

So I bought it and used it for the first time today and boy am I impressed!!

It is a five-pan palette that is thin like the LORAC pro palette but has the same shape pans as the Urban Decay Naked palettes.

Urban Decay Naked, LORAC Solid Gold, LORAC Pro.

As you can see the Solid Gold seems to have bigger pans than the Naked.  The Solid Gold palette has five shadows each at 0.066 oz where as the Naked palette has 12 shadows at 0.05 oz.  Not to mention that this palette is $12 and the Naked runs $50!

The packaging is a bronze cardboard type package with a magnetic closure.  Its small size makes it perfect for traveling.

Here are the swatches over Urban Decay Primer Potion.  As you can see the last two shades are not crazy pigmented but after using them I am still in love.

The first shade is a nice shimmery champagne highlight.  

The second is probably my favorite in the palette.  It is a great all over the lid color that is a warm-toned light champagne-y gold.  Very hard to describe but beautiful.

The middle shade is a very bright orange- gold.  It is insanely pigmented and a tiny bit on your brush goes a looong way.  

The fourth shade looks like a matte but actually has very finely milled gold glitter in there.  It is a red-brown that blends beautifully.  The glitter does not show up much when applied.

The last shade also looks matter but also has finely milled gold glitter in there.  The glitter doesn’t really show when applied.  It isn’t a true black like MAC’s carbon.  It is warmer than that, an almost black that has a bit of brown.  I prefer it actually to a true black since that can look too harsh.

Here is the look I came up with using just this palette.

I used the second shade all over the inner half of the lid and lightly used the middle shade in the center of the eye.  The dark brown color is blended into the outer crease and I smudged some of the black along the lash line.  I used the lightest color in my tear duct and also under the brow bone.  

I also used a bit of the second shade and the middle shade to smudge on my lower lash line.

Everything blended like a dream and I had little fallout.   The shadows last all day for me but I always use UD primer potion.

It’s not my go-to look but it is certainly holiday appropriate and I could get a entire look with just this palette.

Overall I LOVE this palette.

Can you tell?

If you see this: buy it.  I hope you will love it too!

Other makeup:  Urban Decay Primer Potion, elf blush in Mellow Mauve, Milani EasyBrow in Natural Taupe, CoverGirl Lash Blast Luxe in Black, and MAC lipstick in Syrup. 

And a quick Outfit of the Day:

I wore a light chambray shirt from Cotton On and tucked it into some black skinny pants from H&M.

I wore my everyday single-pearl necklace and a pretty pearl and jewel headband.
I LOVE this hairstyle and it's SO easy.  Maybe I can post a tutorial?
Also I wore my nude flats from Target and simple pearl earrings.

xoxo,
Julia Marie

Mercury Glass and Glossy Pumpkins

I love decorating for the holidays. 

It doesn’t matter what time of year.  I just love it.

This year I wanted to add a little autumn spice to our place.

I love the idea of holiday or seasonal décor just blending right into the everyday décor of a home.  I don’t like anything to gaudy or cartoony.

I hit up the local dollar store to find some gems and then I spray painted all of it.

I love me some spray paint.

Anyway, I picked up these cute pumpkins, and tons of different shaped glass containers.

I painted all of the pumpkins white using HD Designs Gloss White.

I also painted one of the shorted glasses a glossy white.  

I took the remaining three glass containers and stumbled through making DIY mercury glass.  

It’s a trial and error sort of thing.

Waning: you can ONLY use KRYLON’s Looking Glass Mirror-Like Paint. It’s more expensive than any other bottle of spray paint but it is worth it.  All others will turn out silver-ish not mirrored.

Note:  You have to spray this paint on the inside or underside of whatever you want to look mirrored.  It’s designed to make the other side look mirrored. 

So I taped off the outside of the glasses and sprayed one coat of the KRYLON Looking Glass and then immediately used a spray bottle to spray a mixture of half vinegar and half water onto the wet paint.  This makes little bits of the paint bubble up and then you can use a paper towel to sort of rub the bubbled paint off.  

Giddy over mercury glass!

If you try to do this just know that there is no exact science.  You have to play with it.  

So on I continued with lots of coats of spray paint, lots of sprays of my water mixture and LOTS of paper towels.

There's a pink candle in this one!

I am so obsessed with the results.  It’s not perfect but I absolutely love the way they look sitting on our mantle and windowsill.

Happy Crafting!

Life as of late

I love this little blog but the thought of editing pictures and perfecting every line is a total drag.  Sometimes things don’t need to be so perfect and curated.  Sometimes I just want to write about every day life. 

I found this quote and pretty little image via one of my favorite blogs: Sprinkle of Glitter.  I have had it as my lock screen for ages now; it makes me happy. 

So with that in mind here is a ramble on nothing in particular and everything in between.

I have been feeling unseasonably comfortable cooking.  I will spend ages just making lunch for little old me.

I cooked these homemade chicken tenders last night for Isaac and I.  They took some time and Isaac helped but they were delicious.

Tonight I made these s u p e r easy crescent roll ups.  Deli meat, deli cheese, and Pillsbury crescent rolls.  So easy and so fast.

Confession:

I actually made this for myself…. And ate this by myself… all me.

Y U M

It’s roasted garlic and slices of French baguette that I drizzled with a little EVOO and crisped up in the oven and a peach from the Farmer’s market and raspberries.  If I could eat this every day I would.

On that note, I LOVE the Salt Lake Farmer’s Market.  It is like produce heaven.  I want to eat all the peaches in the world.  

Isaac and I enjoyed these babies last week.

Oh yeah.  Root beer floats. Y U M

I don’t want summer to end because I love summer food so much.

But I can’t wait for fall.  In Utah we get a real fall season.  All of the leaves change colors, the winds pick up, and the air has a definite chill.  Today we finally started to feel the change in the seasons and I was giddy with excitement.  I cannot wait to wear riding boots and sweaters.  

This is a picture I took walking to class at the U.  No filters.  The leaves are really that pretty here. 

I love summer food and fall fashion.

Posts of my trip to NYC and trip to Surf City, NC will be up as soon as I edit the pretty photos.

 Cheers!

Macaroon Me Madly

So I went to New York.  

And L O V E D it.

I went during a trip to visit my family in New Jersey.

My Aunt Mary and I decided that we needed some girl time and booked a hotel in Midtown for two whole nights! Bliss!  I will do more posts about the entire trip but for now…

Macaroons.

Since my last trip to visit NJ in October my Aunt Mary has been talking about her obsession with Ladurée macaroons. 

We knew we HAD to go while we were in New York.

We took a cab from our hotel in Midtown to Ladurée just for the tiny pastries.  We meant business.  

I took a plenty pictures but I feel like I could have easily filled my memory card in that shop haven.

They are devastatingly French and flown in daily from Paris to the most beautiful shop on the Upper East Side.

The whole shop makes you feel as if you’ve been transported to Paris (one of my favorite cities) as the employees greet you with perfect Parisian accents.

So maybe I’m a bit obsessed now too.

Either way these macaroons are pricey but worth every penny.  

A true indulgence.

I tried two raspberry, two lemon, one salted caramel, and one vanilla.

Raspberry was to D I E for.  

All delicious… but raspberry… yum.

I chose the beautiful pale pink box, which was just as charming and lovely as the entire experience.

It has found a happy home on my desk.

When I got back home to Utah I immediately painted my nails one of my favorite and oh so fitting colors:  L'Oréal’s Macaroon Me Madly. 

I just had to.

Anyway that is my story of Ladurée.

Take me back.

It must be the Chambers in me.

I can bake!

Even though I am struggling with cooking real meals I know I can always go back to baking.

My mom’s side of the family (the Chambers) are all wonderful women with a serious knack for baking.

Almost all of my memories of my Grandma Clara are in the kitchen. Apple pies, rolls, cakes, snicker doodle cookies, homemade bread, and her cinnamon rolls.

 O h   m y   g o d.   

Those cinnamon rolls are legendary. And all from scratch.  That woman is great.

So last weekend I got in my head that I wanted to make soft pretzels from scratch.

Isaac was so supportive but cautioned me.  “Don’t be upset if they don’t turn out how you expect.”  He is seriously sweet.  But little did he know the Chambers’ baking gene passed right along to me.  

I followed this recipe.  

There is something so satisfying about taking flour and water and yeast and actually making something out of it.

It’s soothing.

Anyway, they turned out great.  As soon as I sat them in front of Isaac he ate two.  Other guys from all around the house found there way down following that intoxicating smell of fresh out of the oven bread.  

Here are some of the pictures of the finished product.

Y U M.

Sister Sister

Lauren turned 15!

My baby sis is getting a driver's permit.

Drive far far away.

We went to the Cheesecake factory on Wednesday to celebrate.

Lauren brought her cute friend Mary.

Doesn’t she look so chic?

A little black and white dress and a blue statement necklace.

So adult.

It’s a weird thing being the older sister.

I know I am getting older.  Finishing college, not living with my parents, getting a big girl job, etc.

But I never want my baby sister to get older.  To me she is still in middle school and thinks boys are gross.  She is a solid four inches taller now and looks so mature.  It kills me.

Us goofing off at family photo day.

Dinner just a week ago.  Dad, Lauren, me, and our favorite family member Rosie.

Us after her Confirmation two years ago.

This is one of my favorites of us.  I look like a hot mess but she is so S T U N N I NG.

She looks like such a young adult before her first Winter Formal.  What a babe.

Love her.