Do I Need This? Glitter Primer (with comparison of NYX Glitter Primer and Too Faced Glitter Glue)

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Welcome to the latest installment of my Do I Need This? series. In these posts, I offer my experience and opinions about whether or not I think a product or technique is worth it. Obviously, you don't really need ANY beauty products, so the answer to the question is always going to be no, to some extent. But is it going to change your life (or face)? Is it going to make things easier? Are you going to notice any difference at all? That's what I'm getting at. You may disagree with my verdict, because we all have different bodies/faces/brains/desires, but I'll try to offer a starting point, at least.

It seems like all my posts in this series are about primer lately. Well, there are a lot of different primers out there these days after all. One of the few types I hadn't tried until recently is glitter primer. Um, because I don't use cosmetic glitter, so why would I? But when I had trouble with a lovely, but crumbly, eyeshadow, resident witch recommended a glitter adhesive. From what I can tell, glitter primer originated with indie makeup companies who designed it to work with their loose pigments and glitters, but it's become more widely available in recent years (the Too Faced primer has been around since at least 2011). I am happy to be educated on the real origins of this type of product, however, if you know more than I do, which wouldn't be hard! I picked the only affordable option I'd seen, NYX Glitter Primer ($6), but I also had two samples of Too Faced Glitter Glue ($20) to try out. I'll compare the two products and try to provide some information so you can decide if glitter primer is something that would be useful to you.

Do you need glitter primer?

Short answer: Maybe, if you already own messy eyeshadows and you really want to make them work. Or glitter!

Maybe I don't own all the eyeshadows yet: Swatches of L'Oreal Infallible Eye Shadow in Gilded Envy with comparisons

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L'Oreal Infallible Eye Shadow in Gilded Envy

I bought this eyeshadow after a particularly brutal job interview, when I was wandering around CVS and got sucked in by one of their "spend $15 on L'Oreal and get $5". I like the formula of the Infallible shadows, but $8-9 always feels like a bit of a splurge for a single shade (though most of them are cheaper on Amazon at the moment). For comparison, they come out to almost $67 per ounce (or $2.30 per gram), while Urban Decay Naked palette shadows are $87 an ounce - and that's on the more reasonable side for a higher end palette (most are $100+ per ounce).

The formula of the Infallible eyeshadows is really nice, much better than the vast majority of drugstore eyeshadows in my experience, so having calculated it that way, I feel better about my purchase. In general, with the exception of a handful of gems, including Wet N Wild permanent shadows and Maybelline Color Tattoos (and MUA palettes if you are in the UK) good eyeshadow seems to be one of the most difficult types of makeup to find at the drugstore. So the Infallibles are worth checking out if you haven't already done so. I've included swatches of the three I have below.

I picked out the shade Gilded Envy in part because it reminded me of an e.l.f. eyeshadow I had years ago that I loved and lost. But I also picked it out thinking that surely by now, in my vast hoard, I had already replaced that with something comparable. I knew I shouldn't buy it, but I was letting my mood do the shopping.

When I got it home, I was pleasantly surprised to find that in fact I didn't already have anything like it. SHOCKING. It's a fairly unusual shade, obviously. Gilded Envy isn't easy to describe. Antique gold it the first phrase that comes to mind. I think the closest reference from the natural world is pyrite, which features the same grey-gold and glitter that this eyeshadow has. At some angles, as you can see in the many photos below, it reflects a bit of green. At other times, it looks mostly silver. This one is a shapeshifter. Depending on the lighting, you can get anything from old gold to khaki to forest green to steel gray. It's pretty spectacular. The differences you see in each photo below aren't inaccuracies from poor color adjusting - they reflect this stuff's true shiftiness.

L'Oreal Infallible Eye Shadow in Gilded Envy

Here are swatches, the first without primer and the second with the mediocre Nars primer I reviewed here. The primer does make a difference for swatching, but when I used Gilded Envy on my eyelids with the Nars primer, it was a patchy mess, so I took replacement photos after opening my new tube of Wet N Wild primer. (That's also the main reason this post took so long to finish. I took the original photos on the way out of the house earlier this week and then had to redo them today.)

Swatches of L'Oreal Infallible Eye Shadow in Gilded Envy (without primer and over primer)

Here it is on my eyelid (below). The best way to apply it to get a smooth, even layer is with your fingertip. You can use a brush if you must, but it will make more of a mess under your eyes. Blending the edges with a brush works fine. This is definitely a powder eyeshadow, not a cream, but it's very fine and not completely pressed in the pan, so it comes with that little extra lid to keep it from exploding, which you can see in the first photo in this post. I'm not sure how absolutely necessary that extra piece is. I've never seen any signs of my Infallible shadows disintegrating. Traveling with them might be different, but I haven't done that. On my eyes, in these photos, the gold comes through a little more than in the swatches.

L'Oreal Infallible Eye Shadow in Gilded Envy

L'Oreal Infallible Eye Shadow in Gilded Envy

Despite all the glitter that shows up in the swatches, it's not too crazy once you put it on your eyes. To me, it seems perfectly acceptable for daytime/work wear. I've noticed almost no glitter fallout throughout the day, either.

Unfortunately for you, but fortunately for me, I don't have any dupes to show you. Dupes are good for blogging, but bad for my wallet. I picked out three eyeshadows for comparison, simply as a point of reference, since I thought these might be familiar to some people: Urban Decay Mushroom, Urban Decay , and Maybelline Color Tattoo Bad to the Bronze.

Comparison swatches of L'Oreal Infallible Eye Shadow in Gilded Envy, Urban Decay Mushroom, Urban Decay Mildew, and Maybelline Color Tattoo Bad to the Bronze (no primer)

I also wanted to show you comparisons with the two other Infallible shadows I have: Eternal Sunshine and Sultry Smoke. These shadows come in a range of finishes, as you can see. Gilded Envy is glittery and shifty, as I've said - at some angles the glitter is hidden and at others it's very sparkly. Eternal Sunshine is straight up metallic. Sultry Smoke is completely matte (I've written about this one before, because it doesn't perform quite as well on my eyes as you would expect from the swatch).

L'Oreal Infallible Eye Shadows in Eternal Sunshine, Gilded Envy and Sultry Smoke

The swatches are slightly blurry, but that helps bring out the level of sparkle.

Swatches of L'Oreal Infallible Eye Shadows in Eternal Sunshine, Gilded Envy and Sultry Smoke

As it turns out, I didn't fail too hard. I'm happy that buying my feelings actually worked out for once. Gilded Envy is unusual, versatile, and really pretty. I'm already getting a lot of use out of it. Still, it was a close call, and self-medicating with makeup shopping is not a good habit to get into - especially since there are undoubtedly many other terrible job interviews in my future. It's nice to know that there's still new shit out there for me to discover, nevertheless.

ETA: If you're having trouble finding this particular shade, Ally helpfully pointed out in the comments below that Gilded Envy is part of the Butterfly Collection, not one of the core Infallible eyeshadow shades (though I found it in the regular display at CVS).

Any other Infallible shadows you'd recommend (or suggest avoiding)?

Turn all of your creme nail polishes into shimmers (temporarily): Review of e.l.f. sheer topcoats

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Collecting a few cheap effects topcoats is a good way to double (or triple, etc.) the number of nail polishes you have available, in a way. I've posted before about using a holo topcoat so that you instantly have as many different colors of holo polishes as you have polishes. Using these $2 e.l.f. shimmer topcoats similarly multiplies your options. If you have a color you love, but have seen a shimmer version of it that you're debating buying, getting the right shimmer topcoat might be a cheaper option (and it can be used with all your other colors, of course). I've included one example below where I was able to dupe an Orly nail polish using an ULTA creme I already had and an e.l.f. topcoat. These shimmers are also just really fucking pretty, so that's maybe enough reason to check them out.

Here are swatches of all the e.l.f. topcoats I own over Revlon Parfumerie Wild Violets. I also included the other glitter and flakie topcoats from e.l.f that I have, for the sake of completeness. The last time I checked, it was hard to find swatches of these shimmers, so I hope this is useful to someone. The only shimmer topcoat from them that I don't have is Twinkle Twilight, which I think is a silvery shimmer. (I want it too.) Each of these is one coat over the dark purple base, photographed in natural light.

Swatches (left to right) of Revlon Parfumerie Wild Violets (alone) and then topped with e.l.f. Summer Solstice, Supernova, Big Bang Blue, Fairy Dust, Love Me, and Enchanted.

More photos below:

Is the new OPI glitter base coat any better than plain old white glue? (from Gotham Polish)

Here's a very thorough and useful review of the new OPI base coat for glitter polishes, which seems to just be some white school glue in a nail polish bottle sold for $9. Quite the racket they have going there. Bravo.

Glitter nail polish is notoriously difficult to remove with regular nail polish remover. It makes sense, when you think about it. You have solid chunks covering your nail, which makes it hard for the remover to get underneath and dissolve the polish adhering them to your nails. Using this kind of glue base coat is supposed to allow you to just pop the polish off without using remover. It seems that it pops off very, very easily. Too easily. Like mysteriously disappearing from your fingers in a middle of a meal. Bleh.

Gotham Polish ultimately decides that she's going to keep using it, because it's easier to apply than regular glue. Personally, based on the reviews I've read, I'd be much more inclined to clean up an old nail polish brush or get a cheap art brush and use that to apply glue, since you can buy 10 times as much for an eighth the price. (I'm estimating. It might be even cheaper.) Since white craft glue is water soluble (I think? I remember washing it out my my clothing as a kid), you should be able to just wash the brush and reuse it next time.

Honestly, I tend to have no problem popping glitter polish off when I've used a regular base coat, so I doubt I would even go that far. Peeling off nail polish is one of my great compulsive delights. I'm not recommending you do that, though, since it can weaken your nails.

Another cheap black and white glitter nail polish (from Nouveau Cheap)

Looks like Sally Hansen has another option if you want to do your own speckled nails thing. They should be between $2-4. Some of the other glitters in the collection look pretty cool too.

If you were thinking of picking up the Urban Decay Vintage 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Gunmetal . . .

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Don't.

I know, I know, the discontinued shades of the UD pencils are on sale for $6 everywhere, and it's tempting to go for Gunmetal because it's isn't acid green and seems pretty versatile. But don't bother. It's patchy and sheer. Maybe if you want to use it over another shadow to add some silver glitter, it would be okay for that, but it's pretty useless as either liner or shadow on its own. You can get much better eyeliners or eyeshadows for the same price or less, though.

DIY cheap dupes for speckled nail polish (like Illamasqua, Deborah Lippmann, Hard Candy, etc.)

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You can easily make your own versions of the Illamasqua Speckled polishes ($17), the Deborah Lippmann Staccato polishes ($19), the Hard Candy Candied Color polishes ($4), or the Maybelline Polka Dots polishes ($4).

The last two aren't especially expensive, but this way you can have almost as many speckled polish options as you already have bottles of nail polish for about $4. I know this isn't that mind-blowing an idea (and I'm not the only person to think of it), but maybe it hadn't occurred to you. All you have to do is buy one bottle of black glitter nail polish, and you can have ALL THE SPECKLED NAILS. I mean, this is a trend that we are all probably going to be bored with a year from now, so you might as well get the most out of it for the lowest possible investment right now. Also, this is a great use for those polishes you have which are really fucking sheer and annoying to use without globbing on 6 coats. They're perfect for this technique.

Fix Your Face Quickie Review: NYX Slim Sparkle Eye Pencil in Bronze Shimmer (with swatches)

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I feel like I have a bunch of NYX products, but that I haven't reviewed many. But then I realized that it's because I feel kind of blah about them. They're not terrible, but not amazing - and usually it's one of those qualities or the other than inspires me to review something. So here is a review of an okay eyeliner, because if you're thinking of buying it, it's probably useful to know that it's okay. This is NYX Slim Sparkle Eye Pencil in Bronze Shimmer, which costs about $3.50, so even for just okay, the price is decent:

Without flash.

With flash.

Your Claws: Studio M also sold at RiteAid

FYI! I didn't know that! But here's some cool Studio M holiday glitter polish from RiteAid. And here are the colors I have (not my photos though).