Why is it so hard!? A not so glamorous post

I had so many amazing things planned for my blog and of course life had other things planned for me. I started a daytime job again (yay!) and I must say I really do enjoy it.

However, in the latter part of 2011 I was at work when I had sudden sharp pains in my lower right abdomen...not good. I went to the ER and guess what? Appendicitis! Let me just say that I jump every time I go to the Doctor's and they want to draw blood so the thought of going under the knife literally freaked me the hell out. What's worse is that in the course of diagnosing my appendicitis a huge mass was discovered in my abdominal cavity. So I had my appendix taken out on November 5th of 2011 and on December 23rd 2011 I went under the knife again to have the mass removed. The mass turned out to be an ovarian cyst the size of a basketball and weighed over 10 lbs. Thank God it was benign and now I have been recovering from the surgery that has left me with a not so pretty 12 inch scar running up and down my abdomen. 

Anyway, I think about this blog all the time and I really want to blog about the things I said I was going to blog about, my makeup collection keeps growing and I love doing my makeup in the morning and I just want to share my obsession with the world. 

I hope to get back on track with this blog soon and since I now have my very own Laptop I am sure I will be able to keep up with it with much more success than before.

The Future of Makeup Attic

     First off, I want to thank my readers for reading this blog, to me this blog is a fun and exciting hobby. I know that at times I have kind of let the blog fall through the cracks and stopped posting altogether. I am only human and at times I do become busy with everyday life. I want to however take this blog where it has not been before. I know I have done makeup reviews and make up swatches but I want to do  more than take pretty pictures of pretty make up and post them here.

    In the very near future this blog will start venturing into tutorials. I am a self taught make up artist and I am excited to share for the first time make up applications, how-to's, tip's and tricks on my blog, with easy to follow instructions and a lot of pictures.

   I hope you will continue to follow me as I dwell into the world of makeup application on a blog! I know I have done it on youtube but this time I want to continue tutorials on a blog with still pictures as I think it will be easier to follow.

   If you have any looks or tutorials that you would like to see please post them in the comments below :)

  See you soon!

Urban Decay an MAC eyeshadow dupes!

I love sharing beauty bargains with my readers and I hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoyed making it!

I am sure by now you have heard of the "new" (sorry I am a little late posting) Wet 'n Wild Color Icon eyeshadow palettes. These palettes are made up of 6 eyeshadows. Each palette has 3 shimmery and 3 matte eyeshadows which allows you to play with not only different colors but different finishes as well. The eyeshadows are silky smooth and have excellent color pay off. At only $4.99 (at RiteAid) these palettes are an incredible value! The best part? There are unbelievable dupes to Urban Decay and MAC eye shadows.

Quick Note: I took the pictures with my HTC Evo, some pictures are a little blurry so for that I do apologize, nonetheless you can still appreciate the great color pay off of these eye shadows

Quick Note #2: - I did not label swatches, all swatches on the left side of my hand are Wet 'n Wild all colors on the right side are either MAC or Urban Decay

In this first picture all Eyeshadow Palettes are photographed together , there are 4 total, Vanity (browns) Pride (blues and greens) Greed (neutrals) and Lust (grays and black)

 

From the Vanity Palette, the top left corner is being compared to MAC's Chamomille

  

 Wet 'n Wild on the left and MAC's Chamomile on the right, the difference here is that Chamomile is a satin so it does have subtle shimmer while Wet 'n Wild's is completely matte.

 

From the Lust Palette, the top right corner being compared to Vanilla by MAC

 

Wet 'n Wild left side, MAC right side

 So on with the dupes, this first one is the top left corner from the Vanity palette, the color being compared to is MAC's  Manila Paper , Manila Paper was a Limited Edition shadow but is almost exactly like Nylon so you could say that this color from wet 'n wild is a dupe for nylon as well.

 

MAC left side, Wet 'n Wild right side

 

 Froom the Vanity palette, the shimmery gold in the quad (2nd color left side) pictured against MAC's Goldmine Eyeshadow

 

Wet 'n Wild Left side, Goldmine Right Side

 

 Also from the Vanity Palette, the dark Matte brown (last color on right side) next to MAC's Embark

 Wet 'N wild Left side, Embark right side

 First off, I apologize for the wonky angle, this is the Pride Palette, the color we are comparing is the shimmery blue/green against Urban Decay's Homegrown

 

Wet 'N Wild left side, Homegrown Right side, in this case the wet 'n Wild color has a greener tinge to it

 

 From the Greed Palette, the shimmery lilac color in the top left side against MAC's Idol Eyes

 Left side is Wet 'n Wild right side is MAC

 Also from the Greed Palette the shimmery charcoal on the bottom left side compared to GunMetal from UD

 Wet 'N Wild left side, UD Gunmetal right side

 Another wonky angle sorry, this one we are comparing the shimmery reddish black color from the lust palette to Beauty Marked by MAC

 Left Side Wet 'N Wild, right side MAC

 from the Vanity palette, the matte soft brown on the left side compared to Naked by UD

 Left side Wet 'n Wild right side Naked

 From the Pride palette the shimmery deep blue in the second column compared to the dark blue in the sea & sky mineralize eyeshadow duo by MAC

 The left side is Wet 'N wild the right side is MAC's Sea & Sky duo (the deep blue)

 And finally, from the Greedy Palette  matte black on the palette compared to the so famous Carbon by MAC

 Left Side Wet 'n Wild, right side MAC's Carbon,

In total I have swatched for you 12 dupes.

Now I know some will argue that these are just swatches and nothing else, well let me tell you I have owned these for about 2 months now and I have swatched them worn them and played with them a lot. The color pay off is amazing, they last all day long with a good eye shadow primer ( I use UDPP) and they are truly the best bargain I have found at the drugstore in ages!

I purchased the wet 'n wild palettes on special at RiteAid, they had the Buy one get one free from all Wet 'n Wild cosmetics so I payed $10.00 for all 4 palettes!

Getting these 12 colors from MAC and UD alone would have cost you roughly $180.00 plus tax, so is this purchase worth it? You be the judge :)

My MAC Eyeshadow/ Pigment Swatches

I decided to swatch my MAC eye shadow and pigment shades so that hopefully it helps you all when you are shopping for new colors. I did NOT use any primer under any of the products. The reason for this was that I wanted the color to show through on its own without the aid of any primers. Using a primer will enhance the color and make your eyeshadow last super long I strongly recommend my favorite, UDPP (Urban Decay Primer Potion).

So this is how the picture process will go, first picture will be of the group of eyeshadows swatched, the second picture is taken without flash ( they are labeled "No Flash") the third is taken WITH flash, the reason for this is that the shimmer and frost show up better with flash so you can get a true feeling of what the color is like. All swatches are in the order of the first eye shadow picture therefore I only attached the name of the eye shadows once.

Finally, please remember that colors may change from monitor to monitor so if you own any of these shades and the color does not show correctly that would be why.

Ok here they are :) enjoy!

Quick Note, Dreammaker is a much more golden color but it showed up very white in the pictures.