Today I will be posting a makeup tutorial on how to do a simple halo eye look, featuring one of my favourite eyeshadows - Star Violet by MAC.  This is the first ever tutorial I've ever done, so bear with me if my explanations and photos are still a bit shaky.

"Halo eyes" are an eye look where the outer and inner corners have a darker shadow so that the centre of the eye pops out and creates a glowing feel.  There are multitudes of colour combinations you can do, and they're easy to change up for day or night time.  Below is a photo of the finished look that we will be walking through today.


I don't have a picture for the first step - which is to prep and prime the eyes.  Each time I put on eyeshadow, I always prime my lids first.  Popular products include MACs paint pots, Too Faced Shadow Insurance, and the one I used in this look - Urban Decay's Primer Potion.  This step prevents the shadow form creasing or fading and also makes the shadow more prominent.  After priming, I like to go over the entire lid - even almost to my brow bone, with a base colour that is close to your skin tone.  After you primed, the lid gets a bit tacky, which causes the shadow to not blend as easily.  The base colour takes away the tackiness and also evens out any discolouration on your eye lid.  I used MAC Brule, which is a creamy light beige colour.


After prepping and priming the lid, I used a MAC Kid as a transition colour.  I placed it from my fold up to where my eye socket would be and blended the edges.  MAC Kid is a light matte brown, but feel free to use whichever transition colour you like.  We will be using this shadow to blend the other colours as we go along.  I used a medium sized, fluffy blending brush here.


Next we will take a matte medium brown colour - here I used MAC Swiss Chocolate and apply it to the outer and inner thirds of the eye.  Then take a darker matte brown, I used MAC Brown Down and place it on the outer corner, don't extend it as far in as you did with the medium brown shadow.  Make sure after each colour, you blend out the edges to create a seamless look.  You can also take your brush that you used the transition colour or a clean brush to sweep in windshield wiper motions across the lid and top edge to smooth all the colours out.  You can also go back in with the browns to deepen the colour if you blended too much away.


Now take a shimmery plum shadow, such as MAC Star Violet and place it on the enter of the lid.  I used a flat shadow brush and sprayed a bit of MAC Fix+ to apply the shadow.  Using the shadow wet will make the colour pop just a bit more.  Next, I took my finger (you can also use a small fluffy brush) and lightly patted the shadow on the edges so that it gradually blended in to the matte brown shadows.  I once again took my blending brush that still has a bit of Kid on it to blend out the crease area.


You can leave it there or, if you can make it a bit more glowy.  I took L'oreal Lumi Liquid Glow Illuminator in Ice and gently tapped some product on top of Star Violet, I then took the pink shade in Physician's Formula Natural Nude Highlighter placed it on top of the liquid highlighter.  I used my finger here to tap on the PF highlighter so that it blends into the edges.  I then took my blending brush and used Kid to blend out the crease again.  If you notice the brown shadows fading a bit from the blending, feel free to go back in with those shadows to add in more depth to the outer/inner corners.


For the bottom lash line, I simply took the medium matte brown shade (MAC Swiss Chocolate) and lined the bottom of my eye.  I tapered it so that it's thicker on the other corner, and gradually thins out as it reaches my inner corner.  Lastly, highlight you brown bone (I just used the PF Highlighter), line your upper lash line, and add your favourite mascara and/or false lashes and you're set to go!


Products Used in Order of Appearance:
Anastasia Dip Brow in Soft Brown (not mentioned, used for eyebrows)
Urban Decay Primer Potion
MAC Eyeshadows in Brule, Kid, Swiss Chocolate, Brown Down, and Star Violet
L'oreal True Match LUMI Liquid Glow Illuminator in Ice
Physician's Formula Natural Nude Highlighter
Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper
Maybelline Define-A-Lash (discontinued)
Ardell False Lashes in 110-Black

I recently got the Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bons palette for my birthday (thanks sis!).  Although it has already been reviewed and swatched to death, it probably wouldn't hurt to add more reviews and swatches to the internet for all the ladies and gentlemen out there deciding on purchasing one.  I was extremely excited to try this palette as I've heard great things about Too Faced shadows and it is also my first product from the cosmetics company.  The packaging is very cute and good quality.  It is a sturdy case but thin and light weight which I like.  It is easy to open as it has a magnetic clasp but I wish the magnets were a bit stronger just so it's better secured when travelling.




Like all Too Faced palettes, the Chocolate Bon Bons comes with a card with easy tutorials on three looks, usually a natural look, an evening look, and a fun look.  I haven't had a chance to try these eye looks yet, but I love how Too Faced includes these as it helps the creative juices flow when thinking of new looks, especially with the bolder colours in their palettes.





As you may have heard, this palette, along with all of the palettes in Too Faced "Chocolate" line, smells fantastic - like delicious milk chocolate.  I'm so tempted to lick the shadows to see if it tastes like chocolate as well, but it's probably not a good idea.  I found all of the colours to be pretty well pigmented, both using fingers and brushes.  However, comparing to MAC and Urban Decay shadows, I found all of the colours to be much more powdery than what I am used to.  It may be a matter of personal preference or just getting used to the shadows, but I'm not loving how the shadows apply to the eyes.  I find a lot of powder kicks up when using any of the shadows, even the more buttery ones such as Molasses Chip and Cafe Au Lait.  I find with shadows that are more powdery, it makes the palette dirtier quicker, the colours move around on the eye much more, muddy ing the eye looks, and it overall wastes more product.  This is just my initial impressions on this type of eyeshadow formulation, so after it get more used to it and find better techniques on how to apply to shadows, I may like it much more.



Despite my neutral feelings towards the eyeshadow formula, I do like the majority of the colours and found most of them to be very pigmented, and when applied with a finger, they are quite buttery though each shade has different degrees of "butteriness".  The mattes are also surprisingly pigmented and smooth, though there are one or two that goes on a bit patchy which I will point out later in the individual colour descriptions.  I find this palette has a good mixture of cool, warm and neutral shades, and I love how there a couple pops of colour to set it apart from all the neutral brown palettes out there.  I find you can create many looks for any situations with this palette - going to work, feeling lazy and just want to use one shadow (hello Molasses Chip, Cafe Au Lait and Satin Sheets!), going out, dressing up, etc... However, I also found some colours to look a bit too similar and if you use it together, there won't be enough contrast to tell them apart or they would just look somewhat muddy (e.g.: Sprinkles and Cotton Candy, Cashew Chew and Pecan Praline, Bordeaux and Mocha, Malted and Dark Truffle).





Overall, I do enjoy this palette.  I think this is a good option for those who do not have many neutral brown palettes, as this contains a wide variety of cool, warm, and neutral shades with some pops of colour.  This is great for travelling due to the sturdy case and mirror, and it has all the colours needed to produce a variety of looks.  Personally, I may need to play around with this palette a bit more before I can love it as I'm not accustomed to the powdery formula, but I definitely can see why many people rave about Too Faced eyeshadow palettes as the colours are very pigmented and they have a great, buttery texture (and also smells delicious).

This palette currently retails for $59.00 CAD at Sephora for a net product weight of 14.0 grams.  As a comparison, the Urban Decay Naked palettes retail for $66.00 CAD (net product weight 17.0 grams), the Tarte Tartelette palettes retail for $54.00 CAD (net product weight 18.0 grams), and MAC x15 Netural Palettes retail for $85.00 CAD (net product weight 19.5 grams)

You can purchase Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bons Palette HERE

I used to always be a dark nail polish girl - reds, dark pinks, stormy purples, and mauvy greys.  However, I've recently began loving nudes and sheer pinks.  Simple, yet elegant, giving the "my nails but better" appearance.  They do take a big more work to get down, as you often have to do more than one layer, but they also last much longer as small chips and worn edges aren't as visible.


This week I've been sporting "Hi Maintenance" by Essie.  This is a neutral toned, sheer peachy pink.  It is slightly more sheer and slightly more pink than OPI's "Bubble Bath", but still very similar.

Three coats of Hi Maintenance by Essie, no top coat

The first coat goes on basically transparent and does not look very appealing.  The second coat deepens the colour and gives a very natural look to the nails.  The third coat really brings the polish to the next level.  Once dried, the polish makes your nails look like those fake nails you see in the drugstore, but much prettier.  The nail line is still very much visible, however that is what I feel give this a "MNBB" appearance.  The finish is very glossy which I love.

If you prefer opaque nude nails, this isn't the polish for you, however if you, like me, do like to see the visible nail line in certain polishes, I would recommend this polish.


I do like the formula, despite it being a sheer polish, I found the consistency to be very good - not too thick and not too thin.  I don't find it to be streaky and it dried at an average speed.  I've been wearing it for about a week now and I only see one teeny tiny chip on the side of my thumb nail.


Overall Score:
Colour - 4/5
Formula - 4/5
Packaging - 3/5 (not the biggest fan of Essie brushes, it's a bit too thin for me)
Price - 3.5/5 ($9.99 CAD, but Essie polishes are often on sale where I'm from)

You can purchase Essie's Hi Maintenance nail polish HERE