Now that the Fall/Winter wardrobe has been put into place and just in time because today was rather deeply chilly, the seasonal beauty products will be rolling around.

That’s right. Fall has officially arrived because it’s cool enough to wear…..plaid and warmer clothes!  I wore this yesterday to work!

By that, I mean, I’ll go with a bit more color around the eyes and more color on the face.  My skin gets paler because there’s no more sun or fake tan time (caveat—the legs get fake-tanned year-round).  The foundation gets lighter too.  The whole palette for the face changes.

And yup!  You can wear color and blend it for an everyday look by keeping a light touch!

But for now, I’m sticking to the eyes.  I picked up two more palettes that’ll do well for the fall and winter.  One of the palettes will be great for the holidays too!  Why?  Because the eyeshadow shades are so shimmery and pigmented and just colorful and gorgeous.

And in my advanced age, I’m finding that experimenting with color is a fun thing!

Of course, there’s still the neutrals and one of the palettes is full of neutrals.

Let’s take a look—shall we?

The first palette is The Creator palette by Pur Cosmetics.

The Creator Palette by Pur Cosmetics–wait’ll you see what’s inside!

It’s funny because I saw this palette at Ulta and had it in my shopping bag, but I balked at the $40 price and eventually purchased one of The Vault palettes by Morphe for $15.00

I ended up going with  The Vault Dark Magic Palette by Morphe. It’s on the bottom right–and at fifteen bucks it is a great value!

But I just couldn’t get The Creator palette out of my mind and so I went online to find the best price.  I ended up heading to Pur’s website and lo and behold, found the palette for 20 percent off!  Here’s the link to the Pur website. It’s atrocious to navigate but the discounts are worth it!

Since I needed a powder blush, I ordered this pink number–Tease.  It’s ok. Not the best and not the worst but it lacked in “wow-ness”!

Here’s the blush.  It’s ok.  I’ll definitely use it but probably more in the spring and summer!

Realistically speaking, I am a bit skeptical about ordering eyeshadows online because I’ve heard horror stories of breaking while in transit.  And opening up a mess of broken powder  isn’t something that strikes my fancy.  But—I bit the bullet anyway and took my chances.

Seriously–I’m messy enough without being greeted by a sight like this when I order makeup in the mail!

The palette arrived in perfect condition.

Check out this fancy silver packaging…

And the shadows were in perfect condition! Yay!!!!

The packaging is not only very glamorous but it’s very pragmatic.  It folds open in thirds with a ribbon across two sides of one of the thirds allowing the mirror to be a stand up.  I swear if I could see without a magnifying mirror, this would be the best packaging of all time.

Isn’t this great?  The mirror (for those who can see without magnification) stands up–it’s genius packaging…

As you can see, I have been using this palette. I’m not good at cleaning up the shadows after I use them!

The shadows.  Where do I begin?  They are absolutely lovely.   This is a “face” palette because of the highlighter and contour/bronzers that are included but I’ll tell you, the eye shadows are gorgeous!

I swatched the shadows on my fingers so you could get a better look.  The mattes in the top row are pigmented and easy to blend.  

Here’s the shadows from the middle row.  Look at that shine–get the sunglasses out!

Oh the fun you can have creating holiday looks with these shadows!

And since the palette is named “The Creator”, each of the shadows are named after a creative profession—I like that!

The names of the shadows are so clever and………..creative!  I LOVE Teacher and Actor!

I did use the face highlighter and it’s ok—so is the bronzer.  They are pretty-much like every other highlighter/bronzer that come in palettes.  It’s the eyeshadows that make this palette a WOW!

I wore a fun look today with both The Creator Palette and the Dark Magic Palette.  Will you look at that glimmer!!

Here’s a better photo of how the shadows worked today.  My eyes had color but it was still office-appropriate!

Next palette—OMG.  Please don’t judge me.  You know all about how I refuse to purchase anything from Urban Decay due to a very condescending email the company sent me when I inquired about their 24/7 eye pencils and inquired as to why they excluded the mature woman from their marketing.

I feel like a complete hypocrate for bringing this into my home.  But I’m a sucker for neutrals!

Well—I caved in.  Kind of.  I had a Nordstrom gift card with leftover money.  The Urban Decay Ultimate Basics palette was at Nordstrom Rack for $24.97.  I used the gift card—so even though I purchased it, it wasn’t with my money.

The thing is, I had the Naked Basics Palette since it came out in 2010 and it lasted forever before hitting pan on any of the shades.   It was kept in my travel bag because it was the perfect palette of neutrals for travel I used it even after Chippy tried to eat it and the mirror broke.  It was replaced with The Emily Edition’s The Needs palette which is my new travelessential!

That little Naked Basics Palette sufficed so well for years–see where Chippy ate the end of it?  

But the Ultimate Basics is just so chock-full of neutrals that I really felt the need to have it.

It’s a decent mix of cool and warm tones–the gray “Magnet” color is the only one I would pass by.  The deep purpal “Lethal” is very autumnal!!

So how does this palette hold up to the smaller original?  It’s fine.  Not as pigmented as the smaller one but the shadows work for those days when you just want a hit of “sumthin sumthin” on the eyes.

For those “no makeup” makeup days the Naked Ultimate Basics is a good choice!

I later found that the palette is on the Urban Decay site for the same price as Nordstrom Rack.  My guess is that overall, it isn’t as good as the original Naked Basic Palette.  Ya live. Ya learn!

Do you set your makeup with powder?  I never bothered until recently.  And I like the effect.  If applied with a light touch it won’t make your lines and wrinkles look worse.  Besides, I’m in my sixties. I have lines and wrinkles.  The thing I like about using a powder to set makeup is that I can wear mascara on my bottom lashes without getting the dreaded raccoon eyes.  I don’t set my entire face—just under the eyes and the nose.  And I have to use powder on my nose because of ruddiness.

Kat Von D Beauty had this Lock-It brightening powder on the site for $15 and when I made another purchase a while back I bought the powder.  As much as it’s a great setting powder—it really is. It’s also one of the messiest products I’ve ever used.  It’s challenging to have to be so careful when using it.  Especially if you are a complete and natural slob as I am!   It’s great stuff though!

This powder is so good but sooooooooooo messy!

Lastly, I have to tell you about this great foundation brush.  From iT Cosmetics. As I get more and more involved with makeup and play with the best ways to apply foundation, one thing I’ve discovered is that brushes make a difference.  And a good brush is important to have for foundation.   Not gonna lie.  I spent $48 on this and it was worth every penny.  The brush is a mystery to me because the brand is cruelty-free so the bristles are made of man-made fibers but I still can’t figure out how they made them so soft.  And the brushes feel so good against your face too.

I’m loving the way this brush applies my foundation..and the smaller end–is supposed to be for concealer but I’ve been using it to brush the excess setting powder off.  I love this brush so much!

The bristles are so soft that it’s redunklewlis!! I washed the brush so you could get a better look and it washed beautifully with a touch of hand soap!

And the man-made fiber bristles are densly packed!

Applies like a dream!  I highly recommend this brush!

It’s funny because I love my drug-store products but there are certain items that I like to spend more on and make up brushes are beginning to be my luxury item!

How about you?  Do you use a good brush or does it matter?  I’m very interested!!…

Here’s some more Bradley Cooper from “A Star Is Born”–Alibi–and I swear it’s better than the songs on the radio!