Pigment-palooza!

Etsy.com is one of my favorite sites because I can find tons of homemade products, from handcrafted jewelry to blended mica mineral pigments. Sellers have their own online boutiques where you can browse all of their products and goodies. On a hunt for duochrome eye shadows recently, I discovered two great cosmetic lines on Etsy: Caustic Cadets Cosmetics and Spectrum Cosmetics.

I decided to purchase 5 duotone pigments from each line:

Spectrum Cosmetics charges $3.25 per 3 gram jar or choose any 5 for $15
EOS: Looks like burnt copper with tons of white glitter in the pot but shifts to a gorgeous, sparkly mix of light green and blue with a deep reddish-brown base
EOS-2: (A less glittery version of the original EOS but still shimmery) It looks like a dark reddish-brown in the pot but shifts to a turquoise blue with a reddish-brown base
Mystic: Looks like a medium reddish-brown with moss green iridescence but shifts to a metallic teal-green with a reddish-brown base
Briar: Looks like an almost completely matte light rose-violet in the pot but shifts to a light blue shimmer with violet flecks
Sassy: Looks like an almost completely matte light peach but shifts to a light violet shimmer with light blue flecks

Caustic Cadets charges $3.99 for each jar of 2 grams of powder
Volatile: Looks fuchsia in the pot but shifts to electric violet with flecks of blue
Dreamweaver: Looks peach with green glitter in the pot but shifts to reddish brown with flecks of olive green
Pillow Talk: Looks like rose in the pot but shifts to medium rose gold
Black Magic: (my FAVORITE duochrome!)  Looks deep periwinkle blue with gold and blue glitter in the pot but shifts to electric teal, blue, and gold with a matte black base
Siren: Looks pale pink with blue shimmer in the pot but shifts to a dusty lavender with flecks of light blue

I tried my best to describe the colors accurately and display the right shades in the pictures, but the pictures don’t really do these pigments justice. They are absolutely stunning and so affordable that you’ll definitely want to check out several colors at a time. Happy shopping!

*All of the swatches were brushed on top of Clean & Clear Finishes Pore Perfecting Moisturizer to help the loose pigment powders stick.

***UPDATE: Caustic Cadets Cosmetics are now sold on Facebook here.

If you try any of these pigments, let me know what you think!

Obsessed: Sinful Nail Art Polishes

Sinful Colors Nail Art Polishes in Bonjour, Sunny Day, Sour Grapes, What A Night, and Lazy Girl

Yesterday, I spotted these Sinful Nail Art Polishes at Rite Aid for only $1.99 each! They come in tons of colors- I wanted to buy all of them! I need to cut down on my beauty purchases, though, so I only bought these five:

Cleaning Your Makeup Brushes

If there's one beauty ritual I hate, it's cleaning my makeup brushes. Shampooing 20 brushes is a pain in the butt- but waiting for them to dry is even more excruciating. Unfortunately, I have to clean them at least once a week or grime and bacteria will build up on them and break me out. I used to use MAC's makeup brush cleaner ($14, maccosmetics.com) but it can get pretty pricey in the long run since it's not concentrated.

Finesse Clean + Simple Shampoo for Dry/Color Treated Hair

This week, I decided to try Finesse Clean + Simple Hypoallergenic Shampoo for Dry/Color Treated Hair ($4 for a 10 oz. bottle, Amazon.com). This is a great product to use for your makeup brushes because it cleans them quickly and removes all traces of makeup but doesn't leave any residue or contain any sulfates or other skin-irritating ingredients. It also won't dry out your brushes because it's meant for dry hair and contains light moisturizing ingredients.

Look for Less: Vanessa Hudgens' 3-Stone Turquoise Ring

Vanessa Hudgens wearing the Soixante Neuf ring

Above, boho-style icon Vanessa Hudgens is wearing the Soixante Neuf Turquoise Tri Stone Shield Ring, $260 at BoutiqueToYou.com. For a much more affordable version of her ring, check out Forever21.com, where you can get this Beaded Knuckle Ring for only $3.80!

Forever 21 Beaded Knuckle Ring

Happy shopping!