Here are some photos of a look I just did a YouTube tutorial for. The video will be up shortly, but here are some photos:

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There have been tantalizing hints since last night in the interwebz-beauty-sphere about a second volume of the notorious Book of Shadows palettes by Urban Decay. There were limited amounts available last year and when they ran out at Sephora, they began to sell at around $150 each on eBay. They came back for a while on UrbanDecay.com, but sadly, I don't think many realized it. I stalked Sephora and bought mine the first day it was available and I'll be doing the same thing this time around. Here are some photos the Urban Decay team shared with their twitter peeps today!

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I'm actually a fan of a lot of E.L.F products, espectially the new Studio Line, but it's no secret that E.L.F. employs less-than-honest marketing techniques. From the "Nordstrom Private Label" emails and the revoked codes that "aren't for everyone" yet are still posted without restrictions on the internet, their marketing strategies leave a lot to be desired and tend to leave a bad taste in one's mouth. It is really sad to me because having decent quality products at an amazingly low price should be enough, if they were to just do B1G2F sales or 30% off Friends & Family sales like other brands. I think their marketing is their biggest enemy. The dishonest and sleazy emails their email subscribers receive are enough to turn those customers away. Here is the latest in a string of "stretching the truth" emails:

The items pictured are all Studio items ($3), except the eyelash curler which is a regular line item which is $1. If you have graduated Kindergarten you can see that the items would total $13, and E.L.F.'s shipping is $6.95, which equals $19.95. So it's actually a non-savings of 5 cents if you want to get technical. They add the little disclaimer at the bottom: "Compared to similar items at Sephora.com" which is just absolute garbage, because you're NOT getting items from sephora.com, so it's no savings at all. You're getting E.L.F. items at their regular price. Again, let me say that they really do have great items to offer at amazing prices. If their marketing techniques turn you away from their products, I wouldn't blame you, but if they start promoting their products honestly, I would shout about their stuff from the rooftops. That's coming from someone who has tried all the brands and items they're comparing their products to. E.L.F. PR and Marketing people: if you ever happen to read this, accentuate the positives about your products. They really are good and at that price point, they should sell themselves. Talk about the quality of the items themselves, don't talk about the high-end items they are supposed to be mimicking. When people see you using such dishonest and transparent ads they'll think you HAVE to resort to it because you're selling crap.