All posts for the month July, 2016

Beauty: Highlighters That Don’t Break the Bank!

Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe and I’m back from being sick! I’m feeling better from my kidney stone which is a good thing!

Now that’s done, today I will be doing a post based on Tati’s latest WTF video which featured a really expensive highlighter that was close to a hundred bucks. Oh yeah! It is by Clay Du Pois (Sorry if I spell that wrong) And I thought I should do my own post on highlighters that don’t break the bank even though she has done ones for drugstore but mine is very different.

As a cosplayer, we don’t have the cash to spend on the really higherend brands like Marc Jacobs, Louis Voulton, even Hour Glass due to how we do conventions and the costs do pile up which it can include hotel costs, gas money, food, etc. Especially paying to put together your dream cosplay is part of that cost and one of those things is usually getting makeup if you need to make your female characters shine. I do use highlighters for my cosplays whether it’s in a pallet itself that I travel with like my Pacifica Solar pallet or on its own for some of the other stuff I do and here are some brands you should look for in the drugstore or your local Ulta.

Wet N Wild: Starting off the list is my fave drustore friend Wet N Wild! Lately they have been slaying the displays at Target, CVS, and Walgreens, I believe WalMart as well, with their own highlighters. This past year they have started off with highlighter pallets and the one I have is Cat Walk Pink which features bronze and pink highlighter strips. This can be worn one at a time or you can sweep across like a shimmer brick and give yourself a spectrum of highlight. They did release others that are in more golden tones which I yet picked up but there is a new one called Boojie Brunch according to Kathleen Lights which is compared to the Hollywood Boulevard from Furgy’s line. Speaking of which, Hollywood Boulvard is also another good highlight when you place it on your cheeks. This was around $3 from what I remembered and I heard this was limited edition along with the Rose Gold one I picked up to try something new but the girl that I know at my Walgreens said it’s not. I will have to check whenever I go back and see if they still have the last one but if you can’t find the Furgy highlighters you can just get the newest pallet that Wet N Wild put out.

Almost forgot! There are times when limited edition collections do carry highlighters and I have only picked up the spring collection’s highlighter in What Dreams Are Made Of. I tend to use this with my pastel goth look but have been using it lately. I did get this one since Tati did talk about the spring collection highlighters due to how pigmented and I agre with her! I haven’t gotten any of the summer ones since I was away in Daytona for a month. I will look into what the fall collection holds if there is one.

E. L. F.: Next up is our favorite low-priced brand that has been also stepping up with their products, E. L. F.! These guys have a lot of pallet quads to choose from for $6 each and you can pick between a contour one, a bronzer one, and a few others but they have an illuminating one which features four subtle highlights and these are seen as dupes to the Hour Glass ones since those are around $46 for the singles and $65 for the pallet which sounds painful to the bank. I would say go with this one since it is very travel friendly and I have used it with Lucy during Holiday Matsuri to have a subtle glow on my cheeks. Plus, you can remove these pans and switch out with other things from the many other quads if you want to have a blush in it to travel with. Another pallet that I do like from E. L. F. and trying to use more is the Shimmer pallet. Besides the baked highlighters, which are also good but they sell out VERY quickly on their website and overpriced on Amazon and don’t know why, there was another kind of highlighter that was just known as “Shimmer” and this little pallet comes with four liquid, gel-like highlighters that feels comfortable on the skin. They are pretty pigmented but don’t feel weird going on, I would say use the brush that comes with because if you use a bigger brush like I did you may hit pan too soon like I did with one. And finally, I have to point out the Shimmer Whips which are these little tubes they have of a gel consistency highlighter that also smells good. It is pretty sticky which I will warn you about that but blending in with the finger does work with it. There are different shades but the one that got Allure’s pick was the one in Pink Lemonade and I did order it and got it but had a bit of an order mix up which I got two ther ones, which I am not complaining after it happening due to being able to try these out. I would say the Shimmer Whips would be best during the summer conventions because makeup would melt off unless you stay in wherever the convention is held at, whether if it’s a hotel connected to the convention center like what we have with the Rosen Center and Hilton and the Ramada over in Tampa with their center or the hotel it’s at itself like the International Palms or Holiday Inn. These will stay put which I notice and I would say put them on before blush because you can blend them together more easily after putting it down first and then the blush.

NYX: Next up is NYX! This brand has been all over the stores such as Ulta, Target, and CVS! Now Orlando will be having a store in the Milennia Mall at the beginning of August which I am so happy about! Anyways, NYX has a lot of items that they have made such as my all time favorite Dream Catcher pallets to the Butter Glosses and they do have highlighters! I used to have a liquid one which is the High Beam one forgot…hold on…. or Liquid Illuminator and it was in Gleam. Even though it was so liquidy but it was very pigmented but I did have one of the more powdery ones in a mosaic color which I don’t know the exact name but did label it as “Mosaic.” I tend to use this one for my Pokemon Ice Trainer cosplay which you see me wear in a lot of my interviews! I want to get a few more of these but will wait another time. Another highlighting product I do suggest is their roll on Shimmer sticks! These are used for face and body but due to my body being not friendly with glitter, I do use these for the face. They have many colors to choose from like pink, purple, taupe, and so many others and they blend with blush amazingly. I used the one called Almond which is a copper one with my Blair cosplay last Halloween. What is also great about these, they don’t fall out all over the place like most glitters do. I would say get these if you want a nice quick glitter highlight. Don’t worry, I do know about the Strobe of Genious pallet, I will get that when I get my birthday coupon this year!

Colour Pop: Gotta give a shout out to Colour Pop Cosmetics! I wish they were available in stores but you can get them online and they don’t cost an arm and leg for their highlighters. I have one of their Christmas releases from last year called Electric Slide due to how people raved about this being an amazing highlighter! I quite agree because at first when you get the product in the mail it looks like a cream or a yogurt but when you put it on it goes to powder like many of ttheir many shadows. I seen the many other colors and remembered one called Whisk or Wish was a dupe for one of the higherend highlighters which I am thinking of getting at some point. A little warning, don’t go and dig your brush in like I did with an eye shadow, you may hit pan after two uses.

MakeUp Revolution: Next up is a product that came from the UK and it’s by the brand called MakeUp Revolution. I was introduced to this brand through YouTube and found out that certain locations around me were carrying this brand and was really interested in the highlighters because I heard good things about them especially the gold one called Golden Lights. I can see why this is a popular product and it is very cheap, which is $6 and worth it. Some people do have trouble with the peachy one in this line but the gold one is your best bet for more pigmentation. If you can’t find this brand near you or wherever you travel to you can always hit Ulta’s website for a broader product selection and getting this item there if it sells out or can’t be found.

Well, that is it for this post! I know I covered a lot and knowing that we can’t always get higherend makeup but we can settle for drugstore or drustore online brands. Also, a note, the baked highlighters by E. L. F. do come very dry so that is one note you guys should know if you get one and doesn’t give you any pigment but there are the other highlights I mentioned.

What is next? A Convention Spotlight on Tampa Bay MegaCon! They will be hitting Tampa at the end of October this year and I will be talking about it and a major first for Nerdy Shique Universe, an interview with the Show Director! Stay tuned!

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by moonleopard85 on July 31, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in beauty

Posted by moonleopard85 on July 31, 2016

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2016/07/31/beauty-highlighters-that-dont-break-the-bank/

Books: Patient H-M

Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe and I am back! For I’ve been ill for the past few days and it was not fun especially when you know how your mom and faince feel with a kidney stone. Yes, Mari Blue Cat has gotten what Momma Blue Cat started having when she first had me around my age and coincidence, sort of since I am turning 31 in in the next two weeks. So, setting all that aside! Today I am bringing you my frist book review!

I did mention that I was part of a service called Net Gally and it is where I read books and review them and a part of that I can review them here since I did mark “Revierw” and did mention this blog!

Book: Patient H-Mby Luke Deitrect

One of my favorite subjects back in high school was science and mostly environmental science since I used to want to be a doctor way back when but then watched surgery videos and made me kind of woozy but I am able to handle reading about it in books and this book is called Patient HM.

This book takes a look into the history of brain surgery, seizures, and linking up to the famous patient known as HM which his actual name was Henry. He was seven when he was in a bike accident where he was ran into and hit his head and as time goes on he has seizures due to where he hit his head during the accident and you get to read about his life revolving around how the brain works with memory, how seizures are normally caused and everything.

What I did Like: I did like the history aspects of this book because I didn’t know about how the brain would be so affected by one simple bump to the head. I did remember reading one other book called, Relativity, which you meet a kid that had done something to him all thanks to his dad did when he was a baby. That book shown how one kid can be really smart with physics all thanks to his brain injury while with this book, on the other hand, I got to see how someone can go through everyday life suffering from seizures and living backwards while remembering what you have.

I also did find it interesting back in the early days of medicine that mental helath issues were solved through these procedures more than taking an anti-depressant which is what we have today.

To me, after reading this, I think this shouldbe used for medical science students as a required read for their classes at university or at grad school or even when they get their Ph. D. because of how interesting it is to learn more about this kind of subject, especially if someone has to do brain surgery on someone. Plus, psychologists can read this to since this looks into mental health and how someone goes through different symptoms and how the earlier practices dealt with it so they can have some background of what they are studying.

What Shocked Me the Most: I would say was how HM’s medical documents were destroyed towards the end of the book. Deitrect wanted to interview Henry for a while but kept on being turned down by the woman who was handling the studies for a while until his death and after the death, records were shredded or just tossed away and when Deitrect went to talk to some scientist about it, they said that was a shocker and I would agree that they shouldn’t have been shredded since that could be a very good link to someone who wants to write a thesis on a subject like this.

Final Thoughts: This book was a very entertaining read and a very informative one! I liked how the history behind medicine that we hardly hear about comes up like this and it’s good to know. As said above, this should be put on college reading lists since there are a lot of people studying to become neurosurgeons or even psychologists so it can help them know what happened in the past leading up to now.

When to Expect to Read? It’s funny when I say this but it’s my birthday, August 9th when the book will be published for you guys to to purchase. If you are interested, go for it!

That is it for this post! I will be having another book review soon since I have many books to read! What is next? I was going to do a different post based on a video but it will have to wait. Stay tuned buys!

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by moonleopard85 on July 30, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in Books, Reviews

Posted by moonleopard85 on July 30, 2016

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2016/07/30/books-patient-h-m/

My Thoughts on the Jeffree Starr and Kat VOn D Drama

Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! It’s time to get a little serious and it deals with two big makeup personalities in today’s world and that is Kat Von D and Jeffree Starr. Recently Kat has ended her friendship with Jeffree due to some drama and I have seen videos on both sides of the matter and will be giving you guys my thoughts!

Disclaimer: This post is based on opinion and observation from the writer! Please don’t bash if you don’t like!

What I think at first is that I was surprised when I first heard about it from my best buddy, Stellarnan. I did do my research and basically on some websites it was due to artwork being stolen, racist comments that Jeffree has made in the past, and drug use but I am really focusing on the real issue that was brought in both videos and that is artwork being stolen. I already know about the racist comments and what happens in the past is IN THE PAST! A lot of people have made these kinds of comments before and people do get offended but it is still happening and yes there are ways of stopping it but people do apologize and others do let it go. Next, drug use, Jeffree has stated that it s medical marijuana he uses and that is it and leaving at that.

Real Issue: Artwork Being Stolen. To me the real idea behind this was due to how Jeffree was stealing artwork and I have seen both sides of the story and how it was explained. So, basically, as Jeffree’s makeup brand was being developed he asked Kat for an artist she knows for any artwork they can do for the brand’s products and she introduced him to a close friend of her’s and he drew rough sketches but he turned them down due to how big of a price it was. According to her. He used the artwork without paying but he didn’t and went to someone who he knew a while back with his clothing line that was carried in Hot Topic for that logo design and used their’s instead of tKat’s artist friend. He did say in his video that he did send money to the artist friend and he didn’t know what was going on until now. It does sound complicated but I would say watch both videos to get both sides of the story…which I will say next…
After seeing both videos, I would have to conclude that this should have been done privately rather than in public.

I relate to Jeffree myself since I had it done to myself two years ago due to a Lolita dress maker that I talked about here on Word Press blasting me and her other client on a social media site, I am not sure which one but I saw the post that was sent to me by my best buddy ManChii. People did agree with her but didn’t hear my side of the story which I am having that done in my own book (you will get that full announcement in September) and I felt that not everyone got the full story and seeing these two videos between the two helped me think that two successful people brought something to public eye and to me I feel as though people should see both sides before saying, “I am supporting one over the other and stop ybuying or supporting their brand.”

Will I be supporting either or like most people? No I won’t. I haven’t gotten any of Jeffree’s products yet and only got one of Kat’s lipsticks and so far enjoying it but saying from consumer’s sides, I will still support their brands despite the drama. I mean, I am using as example, Kiley Genner’s line of liquid lipsticks and glosses went through a broken wand phase but have improved over time and still get support from everyone including Jeffree since he got one of those bad wands but gave the brand another chance on his channel. (Saw the video myself!)

Anyeays, I will support both! I am subscribed to both channels and I do enjoy watching new makeup being made, being released, and how people put it to use. Heck, I even make it interesting in my use of what I get. Who knows what will happen to them next since they have their own brands to develop as time goes on. We are humans in this world and people do make mistakes and do assume a lot, that makes a part of our makeup. So, that is it! See both videos and think as you will, but this is what I think.

See ya guys in the next post!
Well, that is my two cents on this issue and seeing both sides of the story does help draw what you may think and conclude.ything but it is important to get both sides of the story before drawing your own conclusions. I know there are a lot of videos made to bash on Jeffree about the racist comments and now knowing the artwork scandal.

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by moonleopard85 on July 21, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by moonleopard85 on July 21, 2016

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2016/07/21/my-thoughts-on-the-jeffree-starr-and-kat-von-d-drama/

Final BoxyCharm and Ipsy for the Moment

Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! Nyuuuu… I am a sad kitty today because not only I got my Ipsy and BoxyCharm for July but…but…but I had to unsubscribe from them both. Reason being… I have been using Daddy Blue Cat’s account for them both and was blamed for overdrafting with both. I am not sure how long it will take until I can get both again but I will be missing both of these, especially Ipsy! Not sure if you guys know but I did mention to my YouTUbe viewers that makeup has been my artistic medium since I went blind back in 2008 due to not being able to draw on paper ever since. I do admit I have tons and TONS of makeup and pallets to use and I have been putting dents in a lot, heck my Naked Basics 2 is about to hit pan and did get a new one. So, I will keep strong and hoping that things look up soon even on the job search since I did apply for jobs over in Daytona. I will update here and possibly YouTube since I want to post more there. Stay tuned and wish me luck on that. Let’s see what I got!

Ipsy: This month’s Ipsy, my very last Ipsy, is “”Hot Summer Nights” which makes sense for this theme because it is hot like crazy here in Florida! We even been having the normal storms every night but too hot for sneakers! Anyways, when Vivi saw the bag it felt like it was almost like the umbrella logo for Umbrella Corps. From Resident Evil. Did Wesker make a deal with Ipsy? What’s next? Pyramid Head will be on a bag? Just kidding, gotta love the pop culture references! What did I get in this last bag?

The Balm Cosmetics Meet Matterimony Eye Shadow: Well, I got the Balm Meet Matterimony eye shadow in Matte Kumar. This shadow was given out last month alongside the Urban Decay shadows and that was an either or and I think they had a ton left over and decided to cycle it in with this month’s bag which I am happy to try this out! I did ask Ipsy Care what I was getting at first since I didn’t know if my Glam Room would open due to my cancellation but it did and now they changed the layout where you can get a lot more tips and easier to get to your bag products. Anyways, this shade is a cranberry matte shade and I did see one Ipster’s video talking about how these colors fit more with fall and winter since they are darker but I like to wear these colors anytime of th year because it’s makeup you don’t always have to be with the seasons. Heck, I even seen vampy tutorials done during the summer! Still, good to try this shadow since it came from the newer Matte pallet I heard about called Meet Matte-rimony which is a cute name! I have two pallets by the Balm and they are really good shadows by the way and good to try this.
Delectible by Kate Beauty: Lemon Hand Cream: Next is a hand cream which I really need and it’s by Delectible by Kate Beauty and it’s their lemon one! Since Day One back in Daytona, I have had this weird thing with my hands where they went dry and had to use my body lotions to keep my hands from drying out due to an allergic reaction to the soap in the despensers in the bathrooms at the center and it worked and was happy to getmoney and went to Bath & Body Works for actual hand lotions! I still had a bit of an itch and one open sore which I didn’t have any cream that was antibiotic enriched since I also had to skip WalMart because of cleaning and packing. The hand lotions worked wonders despite being perfumey and my hands don’t itch as badly which is a good thing. So, when I found out about this one I was super happy since I haven’t gotten any lotions in my Ipsy bag for a while and good to have more hand cream! It is a very descent size for this since it looks like one of the small size tubes you can find for a low price at Lush or Bath & Body, so I do have it in my bag and did take a whiff and it smells like lemon bars! If I do re-subscribe to Ipsy, I am hoping to get more this brand because it smells so good so far!
Ofra Lip Liner: Next is an Ofra product! Yay! I have been getting Ofra more in Boxy but getting them here is also an awesome time because not only I started loving them but Ipsy was where I first got my first Ofra eye shadow pallet through their Offers page. I am so excited to have this since I seen the videos that shown some of the items this month and when they talked about this, I was excited and hoping for it and gues what? I did get the lip pencil! They came in two different colors, not sure which one I got but I am so excited to use this and needed another lip pencil anyways!
Trestik Mini Highlighter Crayon in Maldives Luminescent: Next is another Trestick item since I haven’t gotten anything from these guys in a while either! Wow, long time no see and this time I got a mini highlighter stick! First I got the shadow stick and the lip crayon a few months later and now get to try a highlightinig stick! I tend to like the powder highlighters but have been enjoying one highlighting stick from BOxy last year and good to try something new! I hope this will go well underneath blush!
Luxie Beauty Mini Rose Gold Angled Brush: Last item in this final bag is a brush by Luxie Beauty! There were a couple of brushes this month and they were from Versanti, this brand, and Sedona Lace and I was hoping for the Sedona Lace one since I heard good things about that brand but it is a bit pricey on its own but I did get Luxie again! I have been getting their brushes in both subscriptions and glad to get another eye brush and this one seems to be good for doing inner or outer corner detailing and I would probably use that for it if I decided to take it out of my brush container!

BoxyCharm: My final BoxyCharm…the theme is “Modern Mer-Babe” which makes sense with summer as well! This last box was the one that had awesome sneak peeks and sad to let this go too!

PYT Argon Oil: First is a hair product by PYT and it’s their Argon Oil treatment! This is $30 normally but I do have items I already use that is more than half the price and this is perfect right now because Gondras asked me to grow my hair out! Yep, he wants to see it a bit longer and this will help me out with that to prevent split ends. Awesome timing Boxy!
Mali Beauty Eye Brush: I am so excited about this because Mali Beauty appeared in this month’s box! I never tried this brand even though I can find it at Ulta but I do head for the NYX display the most! This month some charmers either got an eyeliner or a brush and I ended up with a brush since I have so many eyeliners as is! This is a very soft brush and perfect to blend the crease and outer corner. Perfect for this box!
Noya Beauty Lip Gloss in Malbek: This is a surprise since I haven’t gotten this brand for a long time and that is Noya Cosmetics. I remembered them being in Ipsy more and did get a mini lipstick from them and that was amazing! This time I have a full-size lip gloss and it is in the color Malbek. I wish they did other colors despite it being a pretty mauve color but any lip product I did get from Boxy was in different shades for the Charmers and this was nice to get and try out.
Ofra Cosmetics Magnetic Pallet Plus Shadows: Yay! Another product by Ofra and it I count it as a double item because we did get four products and people count it as just four but to me it’s five! This really got me excited because Ofra teamed up with Boxy to create a special magnetic pallet and put six eye shadows and they are six mattes and six shimmer shades in pans! The magnetic pallet itself is $59.00 and the shadow pans will run you $10 and that right there gives you a total of $119 total for these two alone! Holy crap! There is enough room to stick more shadows in this since you can put in your MakeUp Geek pans, the MAC shadow pans, and also depot your stuff and there you go, you have a new Z Pallet! I may have to start getting some MakeUp Geek and Mac pans for my other magnet pallet and this one in the near future! I do love the shadow chocies and can’t wait to use them!

Well guys, that is it for these two! I am happy and yet sad that I got these but my very last ones for the moment. I did try going for the PR request with Boxy because I don’t want to let this subscription go and will try again next month especially how they killed the box this month! I mean come on, you get six shadows and a Z Pallet in one? That was one thing that excited me the most about this month’s box! Plus, I was even happy to get a brush from Mali and Luxie, an Argon oil for my hair so I can grow it out, a hand cream to use since my hands have been suffering! And happiest to get one of the Ofra lip pencils and the Meet Matterimony shadows by the Balm! I hope to re-subscribe soon to both or at least Ipsy since I do love that subscription a lot and does let me try newer things and does keep me from going nuts at a drugstore or Ulta and now Sephora. Plus, these subscriptions did get me into some of my favorite brands such as Smashbox and Urban Decay and some other brands a bit more like NYX, City Colour, and Coastal Sense! So, this is hoping for the the future!

Well, that is it for now!

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by moonleopard85 on July 16, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in beauty

Posted by moonleopard85 on July 16, 2016

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2016/07/16/final-boxycharm-and-ipsy-for-the-moment/

Beauty Review: Tart Swamp Queen Pallet (Collab with Bunny AKA Grav3yard Girl)

Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! It’s time for a review and this time it’s a makeup one! It’s been a while since I done a makeup review even on the YouTube Channel which that may change in the future. What is this review on? It’s on the new Tart X Bunny aka Grav3yard Girl collab pallet!

Who is Bunny? Well, if you have been reading a lot of my posts, I have mentioned her in a lot of my posts and she is a YouTube personality and her user name is Grav3yard Girl and she does introduce herself as Bunny since it is her name. I got into her when I started watching Drugstore Hauls on YouTube and saw her one of her haul videos and started watching most of her videos and I do like some of the things she liked like ghost hauntings and rocker type stuff, I do like some tye dye items since I did use to wear tye dye back in high school. Anyways, she is very funny and quirky, which drew me to her and she did a lot of other things like try As Seen on TV items, haul videos, heck she does school supply giveaways every year when school starts up which you know families today are struggling to get their kids school supplies and that is amazing of her to do. Great thing about her she does give a positive ideal of being yourself and not anyone else.

The Pallet: The pallet is a project in the making with Tart since a lot of her fans, aka the Swamp Family, was having two fans posting on Instagram on a pallet should be made with Bunny and calls hit Tart like crazy about doing this and guess what happened later…we have it now! This pallet is a face and eye pallet which features nine shadows and a bronzer, blush, and highlighter in one! Sounds like something that should be taken on travel doesn’t it? Some people were hoping that the shades would fit her more gothic side or have a bfight, gator green but the shadows are more neutral and every day because there are people that want to do every day looks and every night looks and want to have something versatile in that area and I do like that about this pallet.

This pallet has that antique wood and gold look for her love for antiques and it does fit her since she shops at Uncommon Objects and it’s different from what I have such as the Naked Smoky pallet’s cloudy design to the camera looking box that the Smashbox Full Exposure and Mini Full Exposure pallets have. Let’s see what it is in this pallet:

Column One:

Sweet Tea: This is the bronzer shade which is a warm chocolate shade with some shimmer to it. I don’t wear bronzer but I do use it as an eye shadow and I did do a look, which I will describe it later, and used this on the outer corner of my eye or I can use it in my crease with some of the deeper brown shades in this pallet. It is very nice!
Does This Thing Really Work?: To answer that, yes it does because it is a very pigmented blush! It is a purple pink shade and very pigmented! I would say use a light hand as poissible with this because you may get a bit too much if you go nuts! That is why I want to say as well, everything is pigmented with the Amazonian clay formula that Tart is well-known for!
Gator Wings: You know you can’t be Bunny’s pallet without having a gator themed item in this and that is the highlighter called Gator Wings. This is a golden highlighter but it is more of an antique-type gold and man you can go crazy with this on your cheeks, your crease, even on your brows if you want to! Jeffree Star was excited to try this out when he did his video with this pallet. When you swipe your brush, you will get a major highlight!

Shadows:

Top Row:

#sfs: This shade is a rose gold shade which is really good for a nice highlight in the brow.
Natural Peaches: It’s a peachy nude shade, which I will talk about what I used in my look and will link to my Instagram below. I used this shade all over my lid as a base and I did say this is very pigmented shadows for my first time trying out eye shadows by Tart. I know it sounds weird for someone who has used other higherend brands but the only thing I did try by Tart are the lip crayons all thanks to Ipsy and BoxyCharm. I rarely use peach shades until now which is a new thing for me and this pallet did make me step out of the comfort zone with this shade!
Dogman: This shade was named after her boyfriend, which I did forget to mention the last two shades that the first shade was named after the Swamp Family idea and the last shade was named after her group of buddies, the Natural Peaches. This one is of course named after Dogman and it is a Burnt Sienna color/orange and I did use this in my crease to pop it out a bit and did say I never use peach color but this one was a new thing to use since it is in the orange range of color with a hint of brown.

Center Row:

Big Baby: It’s a cream shade and it was named for the baby dolls she collects and you tend to cactch them in her video. I can’t see the dolls due to being blind. I wonder if she knows that she has a blind swamp family member? Hmmmm!
Sassy Buns: This is a coppery peach color which is named after the hair buns she wears! As in, the buns she put her hair up in. I used this along my brow bone since it was a nice highlight to it.
Sippy Sippy: This is a shimmery brown shade that I used to define my lid area and it went well with the peachy and sienna shades since I wanted to do a peachy neutral look. Bunny did say in her video that people weren’t getting her asthetic as much and were expecting more smoky and bolder shadows over neutrals but she was thinking of the different ages when she picked the colors. I love my neutrals and loved what I came out with this shade, Sassy Buns, Dogman, and Natural Peaches.
Bottom Row:

Haunting: This is a lavender color which would be nice to combine with #sfs which maybe I should do a look with these two shades. Reason being is that she loves a lot of paranormal stuff and telling ghost stories. I did remember how she mentioned she loved the series Paranormal Witness which I did like that show until I noticed some bad dreams I’ve been having and had to stop watching.
Uncommon: This is a purple slate color which is very awesome to include! This was named after that store she loves to shop, Uncommon Objects and she did say she loves having antiques.
Mancat: Deep plum shade! This was named after her old cat Mancat and he was a black cat but she wanted the shade to be more plummy since a lot of pallets have black in it already. I agree with that since I did recently get the Urban Decay Gwen Stefani collab pallet when it was discounted and that had a black shadow in that along with the Urban Decay Naked Smoky, the Smoked pallet, I believe the Coastal Sense Revealed pallets have black shadows too, this was a nice change from that and it makes it very unique and happy to have! I may have to use this shadow at some point!

Thoughts on the Pallet: This pallet was worth it! I can see why it sold out at Ulta and Tart and if you are wondering… I got mine from Sephora which is a surprise to see that it was still in stock there! I was worried thatmy check wasn’t going to come in time plus the pallet would sell out but I was in luck and got my paws on it. As said above, I never got to try Tart’s eye shadows before only the Lip Surgence lip crayons and see why so many people love the eye shadows! They are very pigmented and very easy to blend, even blending the bronzer into my shadow look was very well done. I did mention this is the Amazonian Clay formula for everything in this pallet. She did say to lay an eye primer which I used my Smashbox Photo Finish primer and it popped! There was a warning when it came to Sippy Sippy to be a bit chunky and having fall out but I didn’t experience that at all while applying my shadow, I think I was using the brush that was included to do the defining portion of my eyes and didn’t give me much a problem. I did see someone say that Mancat can also pose a fall out problem too which I have to see how that goes whenever I do that one. I did use my brown liner by Wet N Wild to line my eyes and I forgot what mascara I used but I did also use the blush and highlighter in this pallet and completed my look with Ruby Woo by Mac since she loves that lipstick and I did add it to my Mac purchase list and picked it up a few months back.

She did have two lip products in this collection which are Texas Toast, a greyish purple shade, and Seamp Family, a classic blue red. I didn’t gget any of these two and they were sold out, I think Swamp Family was sold out since that was popular. I did get a Sephora lip tint to pile on the free shipping for Sephora and did give me my first hundred point perk I will ever get!

Rating: Five Paw Prints Out of 5 Including a Shimmery Paw Print of Excellence! Why is that? Because I looked up to Bunny as someone that says “Be Yourself!” and that is true that we have to love ourselves and believe in ourselves and great thing is that she got to have a collab with Tart. So many YouTubers are having collabs such as Jacqulin Hill with Becca, Manny MUA with MakeUp Geek, and now Nicki Tutorials is having one with Too Faced and I am proud of Bunny like everyone else! I would say get this pallet if you haven’t before it is gone since it is limited edition and you will enjoy it.

Well that is it for this post! Oh, here is that pic of the look I made with the Swamp Queen Pallet:

Also follow me if you’re interested! Also, follow on Twitter @ Nerdy Shique!

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by moonleopard85 on July 13, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in beauty, Reviews
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Posted by moonleopard85 on July 13, 2016

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2016/07/13/beauty-review-tart-swamp-queen-pallet-collab-with-bunny-aka-grav3yard-girl/

Review: House of Blues July 1st Show and New Mr. Bella Album!

Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! Guess what? I am back in Orlando! I returned last Friday and man I had a major weekend of recovery from my month away in Daytona Beach. Not only I was recovering but did have to unpack everything I took and bought as well. Besides all that, I do have a review for you and that is on the House of Blues show I went to last Friday along with a review on Mr. Bella’s new album which I picked up while I was there! What do I think? Keep reading! Also…

DISCLAIMER: This review is based on opinion and observation of the writer! Please respect the thoughts and opinions of what they say.

House of Blues, July 1, 2016 Show with Filth, Mr. Bella, Soul Switch, and Mechanism: I did a quick review on this show over on my Facebook and decided why not bring it to Word Press since this was a show not only after the Pulse tragedy but it was the last show that Tom Huestus of Soul Switch was saying goodbye to the band. When I found this out back in May, I was surprised because Soul Switch has been together for as long as me and Gondras have been together (didn’t know until the night of the show about this tidbit) and they aren’t the only ones who lost a lead singer because Leaving Haven lost their’s at the time of I found out about this. So, I did what I always do and asked for tickets from Matt of Soul Switch and I did get two envelopes full of them this time around.

I know I mentioned how the Pulse tragedy was an unfavorite last month and still is it didn’t keep all of us and the rest of the crowd from not going and the bands from performing that night! They did beef up security which was a good thing. Before we got into the House of Blues, we did explore the Disney Springs area since we had time to kill and we found the Mac and Sephora in that area. For those of you who don’t know is that Disney Springs took place of Pleasure Island which was the party spot of all Disney and lost money apparently during the recession and was changed into this place. Very nice and we will have to see how it’s like in the shops. Also, got to go back to Ghiradelli after so long since that place is my number one chocolate spot and all time fave! Gondras tried a sundae that had cookies and cream, vanilla, and those new mini squares with caramel which taste amazing! I had the salted caramel brownie shake was equally amazing! If you haven’t been to the Ghiradelli shoppe on the Village side, you should because they tend to put their chocolate squares in every ice cream item! Stellarnan did have something but from a shop across from Ghiradelli and it’s a Canadian dish called Poutine which tasted very good actually! I never thought gravy, cheese, and potatoes would go together and that is not the only one they have since they have others like a latin-style and an Italian-style, which sounds delicious but I would go for the original.

The Show: The first act up was known as Filth. I never heard of these guys since it was their first time at the House of Blues that evening and man they really woke me up! They are a scream metal band and when they started their set I almost flew out of my flip flops. I know it’s strange to hear me say I was wearing flip flops but since the day before I was wearing a pair of new wedges that went with a dress for a mock interview and I had flip flops to help my feet out that I bought when I got to Daytona at the beginning of June and wearing them and learning from that night was kind of a mistake but I wanted to be comfortable. The band, Filth by the way, was okay not knocking my invisible socks off at the moment except they did bring Tom onstage for a song since it seems that some of the bands were really wanting to celebrate with him.

Next up was Mr. Bella always lighting up the stage! They started off with my alarm for the past month and that was “Cross My Heart” and it killed it! They did perform a lot of new material which I will get to the review after this and did pick up the newest album they done. They did have a major request from it and that was the song “Psychological” which is very awesome! They did go back to one of their oldies and it was known as “Fire.”

Next Soul Switch took the stage and of course they not only killed it but fired up the stage despite it being the last night for Tom to be in the band. They done their classics such as “Walk Alone,” “Saving Me,” and of course “Hang On,” and the song you will ever hear me scream with, “Demons.” “Change” this time around was extra special because the lead singers of Mr. Bella, Filth, and Mechanism were also brought onstage and both Anne Marie and Eric were heard in the performance. I am not sure if Mecha joined in with the screaming because she is also a screamer and opera singer with her music. What really made us sing along was of course Soul Switch doing “Zombie” by The Cranberries. We have seen some of the local acts cover this song but this done by Soul Switch would make Cranberries happy due to how well they did it! I also made it extra special since not only my birthday is the day before Tom’s (go figure that I was born on August 9th and he was born on the 10th) but decided to bring my zombie torn shirt! If you guys don’t know the story behind it…

So, it is pretty much the original Soul Switch shirt and when I had it washed the first time it unraveled a little and I worn it to the show back in 2011 if I remembered or was it a year later, anyways, I wanted to see if I could get a replacement and did. I kept the unraveled shirt and when Manime Man held a Friday the 13th party, I had an idea and pretty much went town on this shirt to make it look like I was my Soul Eater character fighting off zombies and covered in zombie blood and shreds. I did wear it to the End of the World show underneath my warm jackets since it was freezing like crazy that night, the last show we saw them at last year in the fall, and now this one since Tom was leaving. He did want me to bring the shirt and decided why not get it signed to retire it. Man, it tickled with the sharpies but worth it! I also have a picture with them which you can see on my Instagram at MariBlueCat. I hope Soul Switch will be okay as a band because I will miss Tom in the band but I will still wish him birthday wishes when August 10th rolls around!

Finally, Mechanism finished the night which in my honest opinion this set was a bit off. I mean the sound check shown they had no problems but when they performed they were a bit off beat. I mean Mecha was a few beats ahead of the guitars and drums. I think one song had them go with the beat a lot better. Mecha is still nice as ever and she was happ0y that I came back from Daytona earlier that day.

Mr. Bella New Album:”Don’t Tell Me No!” This album shown how much Mr. Bella has matured as a band. I still remembered seeing these guys back in 2009 at the House of Blues and it turned into a regular thing to go to see local bands for us. “Don’t Tell Me No” is a major step up from seeing them back then and now that it’s 2016 and still rockin’! I heard their newer stuff since the start of last year and man it sounds good. The songs you would tend to hear them perform are “So Long to Sanity,” “Word,” and “Don’t Tell Me No.,” which are equally great songs even live. But the song that really got my ears going is “Psychological!” This song has me tapping with the beat of the drums and give me a nice adrenaline rush while listening to it. I think of the anime Psycho Pass with this song because of the action it brings. I can see why so many fans requested this song to be performed especially when we went since it kind of gave me the same feeling of “Cross My Heart” live. What surprised me about this album the most is the cover to “Just Dance.” I bet you’re wondering, “Bowaaaaahhhh!?” Yeah, they covered a Lady Gaga song and they made it better in my ears! I do admit I do like “Bad Romance” and one other song I am blanking on but “Just Dance” was covered very beautifully and Anne Marie rocked it.

That is why I am giving this album:

Five Paws out of 5!

What abouyt the show? Hmmmmm…..

4.5 out of 5 Paws! Reason being is that Filth was just okay in my opinion and Mechanism did a smooth sound check but the performance was a tad bit off. I can’t help it that “Zombie” done by Soul Switch did keep a higher score because they really rocked that song!

Well, that is it for this review and I am glad to be back in town! I may be going back in the future since Daytona is considered a home to me since it is very accessible but for now I have to focus on my turutre and how to grab it.

What is next for Nerdy Shique Universe? I am not sure yet but…it may be a sad end to my Boxy and Ipsy for now. I will explain in the post for that so stay tuned! Also, make sure you’re following me on Twitter and now Instagram where I post new pics even new makeup looks!

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by moonleopard85 on July 8, 2016  •  Permalink
Posted in Music, Reviews

Posted by moonleopard85 on July 8, 2016

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2016/07/08/review-house-of-blues-july-1st-show-and-new-mr-bella-album/