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NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA EYE MAAAAAAAAAAASK! And that ladies and gentleman, is the most efficacious thing about this particular eye mask - the comedic possibilities. As a beauty-delivering device, it left me feeling a bit shortchanged. However, it did prompt me to do another product review post. So. Here it is - some things I've tried these last few weeks that are easy to find when everything's closed, and wont break the bank. This eye mask is another of the the Garnier Moisture Bomb Eye Tissue Masks. This one claims to sport coconut water. I suppose I should back up a minute here and say that like with the other products in this post, I am not being paid to review this mask. That's probably ok, since I would probably have to act like an adult if I were getting paid. This mask is pretty much your standard issue hyaluronic acid tissue mask, it smells faintly of coconut, and is fashioned into some sort of Batman & Robin eye mask that fits nobody, but looks hilarious on everybody. It's also hard to wrangle. Seriously, is it supposed to go under my eyebrows? What is that little perforation for? Am I supposed to tear it apart? Won't it get in my eyes if I try and fit it up under my eyebrows? Apart from delivering some much needed moisture to my undereye area, this mask did little to deliver on its claims to plump up the skin or reduce fine lines. This may be perfectly fine if you're 25. For those of us who are so totally not 25, do not even waste our time by promising a Batman level of efficacy only to a deliver Droopy Dog amount. Not that there's anything wrong with Droopy Dog. Just not when we were promised Batman. This mask's performance may have been underwhelming, but I suppose anything that inspires me to dance around the house singing the Batman theme and taking selfies does have inherent worth. In medicine they'd call that sort of unintentional find an incidental finding. For that, I am giving it a score based purely on comedy, and in no way reflects how it worked on my actual undereye area. Garnier Moisture Bomb Tissue Mask: B- Next up is a happy accident product. As some of you may remember, I am a huge fan of the Anastasia Dipbrow Gel wand for brows. I've written about eyebrow stuff quite a lot, because as it turns out, as you get older, brows matter. I used up my last tube of Anastasia brow gel a while ago, and was sort of dithering about getting more because quite frankly I recently resigned from my day job and I'm on a pretty serious budget. About a week ago, while in the local grocery store, I decided to try the Rimmel Wonderful Brow that was sitting in front of me on the only cosmetic display in the entire shop. Why not? It was £6, it filled a need, and at the very least it would give me something to talk about here on the blog. Guess what? I like it better. Like the Anastasia, it is waterproof once it dries down, so not only is it nice for shaping the brows and filling-in the little gaps, it stays put. The darkest, brunette color was not too warm and orangey for my increasingly silver hair, and it is way, WAY easier to work with once you get used to it. The Anastasia goes on very thick, and dries down rather quickly, so if you make a smudge, you may be committed to a look you did not intend. The Rimmel goes on a lot thinner. Yes, you have to work with it a bit longer to get the coverage even, and it takes a bit longer to dry down, but it is much, MUCH more forgiving if you muck it up. When you do muck it up, it's easy to correct. When applying it, you can use a much firmer press of the wand than you can with the Anastasia, so it's actually a lot easier to control, ergo easier to get a natural look when you aren't wearing a ton of makeup, which I rarely do these days. This Rimmel product also washes off easily at the end of the day with my go to cleanser. Rimmel Wonderful Brow Eyebrow Gel: A- Lastly is another happy(ish) accident (incidental finding) product. Last week I nipped to the drugstore to grab a few things I had run out of, and saw this little red pot sitting in the bargain bin. Behold, the Revlon + Wonder Woman Glow Pot Glossy Face highlighter in the shade Golden Lasso. If you think that perhaps purchasing a superheroine-branded highlighter from the bargain bin at the drugstore might bring you less than stellar results, you would technically not necessarily be wrong. Technically. When you open this highlighter, it looks like a little pot of whipped-up gold, and you cannot wait to dig in. It's when you stick your actual finger into it when things start to take a funny turn. While I was expecting a highlighter with a light texture that dries down to reveal a subtle sheen (you know, like literally every other liquid highlighter), what is actually in the pot is this sticky, tacky....it's pretty much lip gloss. It goes on sticky, and it stays that way. All. Damn. Day. And to be honest, believe it or not, I'm torn by this inexplicably weird texture, because when it's on your skin, a little goes a long way, and it really does look natural and glowy. I genuinely like the way it looks, but cannot stand the formulation. Because again, you're literally smearing lip gloss on your face. But don't take my word for it. Check out some of these reviews. "Basically Vaseline. I could DIY a better highlight." - Mecca S. " Greasy" -V "Gross. This feels heavy and tacky on the skin. Your hair will stick to it. I would only recommend it if you wear your hair up and use it as a lip gloss" -Anon You get the idea. So yeah, it looks nice and natural, and I am actually still using it (albeit sparingly) right now, really just because it's here and nobody is going anywhere right now. Plus at the moment, it's all I've got. I also wear my hair up every day while we're still in a lockdown here in the UK, and I think that's the key to being able to tolerate this product. Im guessing that if i didn't tie my hair back with this product, a stiff breeze would end up sticking all my hair to the sticky lipgloss stuff all over my face. Wonder Woman Liquid Armor Glow Pot: C-

One of the things I really love about curating a vintage shop is challenging myself to create entire looks from only my stock. There's something so satisfying about creating a whole look out of pieces that someone else has written-off - it's actually very addicting. Once you get a taste for it, the "normal" consumptive practice of point and click, instant gratification shopping feels boring. To that end, I've decided to challenge myself each week to create a sustainable look from my stock to showcase here on the blog. Not only does it tick the box for shameless self-promotion, it's a small step towards shifting our collective attitudes as consumers towards a more sustainable, less wasteful means of cultivating one's personal style. It's also a bit like announcing on social media that you're going to go to the gym five days a week and post it on Instagram - I'm committing to it and you guys are going to hold me accountable, lest I suffer the public shame of being "all hat and no cattle". So. All of the looks I post here are pieces that are in the vintage shop. Many, if not most, you will probably recognize from their first runs during their respective eras. So without further Ado, I give you today's contribution which I'm calling "Y2K Hoedown" •1990s Esprit cropped plaid sleeveless blouse (M) •Y2K era Wrangler distressed embroidered denim skirt (M) •Y2K era croc-embossed cross body bag (unbranded)

An "eighties shoulder" is of course the polite euphemism for the sartorial elephant in the room - that thing that makes us all cringe when we think about it. Shoulder pads. Eeew. Even typing it gave me a wee moment of panic just there. All of us of a certain age remember those linebacker-inspired 80s styles that were so famously paraded around by every television presenter and Dynasty cast member of the time. When I'm curating my vintage shop, I spend a fair amount of time gazing upon shoulder pads - enough time to have apparently brokered a peace treaty between us. While there once was a time where I simply would never consider a garment that had shoulder pads in it, now I'm in the "maybe these aren't actually that bad" camp. Sure, say what you will; that tolerating any level of shoulder pad is the gateway to bigger, harder forms of shoulder pads, that zero tolerance can be the only policy, blah blah blah...it's fine I can quit any time I want! The thing I've come to realize is that many of these vintage garments are actually cut to accommodate the shoulder pads. If they're especially big shoulder pads, removing them entirely can alter the look of the garment, sometimes for the better, often not. Consider for a moment this vintage 80s Liz Claiborne dress. This is a dress that was definitely cut with the shoulder pads in mind, and I'm wearing it as it was sold off the rack in the 80s, with the original shoulder pads intact. These shoulder pads work great in a 1986 sort of way. The strong shoulder makes your waist look smaller, keeps the shoulder seams of the dress where they're supposed to be, and gives the top a nice blousy effect without the neckline plunging too low. Are they larger than I would want in 2021? Yes, ideally I would downsize them to something that just provides a hint of structure without all the bulk, retaining the overall shape the designer had in mind, but generally, I like what they do to the drape of the dress. Equally I think with these 80s pieces, bringing your own personal sense of styling into play is the other essential ingredient; a strong sense of personal style sort of coaxes a strong vintage 80s piece back into the modern realm, lest you end up looking like an extra who wandered off the set of some 80s flashback film, in search of the craft services table no doubt. So... the question at hand: does an 80s shoulder work in 2021? Yes. Mostly. I reserve the right to make modifications to some of the more spectacularly scaled-up specimens, but (and I can't believe I'm writing this), even shoulder pads have their place in the Great Divine Cosmic Sartorial Design Scheme.

I'm a big fan of 90s-style denim shirtdresses. They're easy to come by (check your local thrift stores!), travel well, layer even better, and are something you can grab in a pinch and feel like you at least tried to make some kind of look happen that day. This particular specimen is the only denim dress I have in my closet that isn't actually secondhand. Yes, it's distressed and has the look of something pre-loved, but this one I actually bought off the rack. Sadly, it's from a season ago, so I can no longer find it to link to any more, but this look is easily reproduced with just about any denim dress you can find in your local stores. I decided to go ahead and purchase this one new (something I hardly ever do any more) because I was drawn to the heavy, old-school thickness of the denim, the Western detailing on the pockets and back yoke, and the high-low hem that makes bending over a bit less terrifying if you're not layering it over something. My intention today was to layer it over tights and a long sleeve shirt, but this sort of happened on its own, and I liked the look. If you were to swap out my Dan Post over the knee boots, which on me are more "mid kneecap" boots (what can I say I'm a giant with long femurs) - but if you were to swap those boots out for a thick-soled Doc Marten and dye my hair back to it's natural bark brunette, you'd basically be looking at my 90s self. I used to be one of those people who was wary about the type and amount of "destruction" I was willing to wear in my denim, but like a lot of things I used to hold up as sartorial "rules", the older I get the more of them go straight out the window. Check back when I'm still doing this blog in my 80s for the pleather parachute pants paired with a gold lamé bikini top and light-up cowboy hat. By then it will be an absolute no rules free-for-all around here.

I've had a strange, rather standoffish relationship with scarves. It's not the chunky, hand knit, oversized, or even the pashmina varieties of scarf that I'm talking about here - those I feel like I know what to do with. Those an easy pairing with a modern, casual, and now locked-down sartorial life. No, it's those lightweight silky ones - sometimes square sometimes long, those are the ones that have always felt like a step too far into the conservative zone for my sartorial choices. Sure, I'd go for it and wear one every once in a while, but I never really felt like it was clicking. I judged scarves for their presence in the memories I had of the little old ladies I used to see at the grocery store as a child; the ladies who wore scarves and plastic rain bonnets to protect the rollers in their hair. When do they take them out!? I simply wasn't able to see past that visual, and it left me with the notion that scarves were perhaps some sort of gateway drug, culminating in leaving the house in rollers and the subsequent need for plastic rain bonnets. Allow the record to reflect that while I may not have been wrong about rollers, I have been wrong, very wrong in fact, about scarves. Whether this is an actual sartorial epiphany or just the fact that I've now grown old enough to have lost the ability to care about a garment's shady or uncool reputation, I suppose the end result is the same. Most likely this new affinity for scarves comes from the hours I spend curating the vintage shop. I sift through a lot of stuff these days, born of the desire to have a well-rounded edit of stuff that I myself would actually want to wear - my one and only criteria for the things I stock. Let me tell you, if you're ever unlcear about your own personal sartorial identity, stock a shop (or a Pinterest board) full of things that you would want to wear, and stand back. Your style soon becomes evident, in all its quirky glory. But I digress. I think the act of sifting through my stock has pushed me to accept scarves for what they truly are, simple, artful pieces of fabric with about ten thousand uses - and counting.

This post is a bit of a quick aside that I conjured while I was busying myself photographing this late 90s wrap tunic for the Etsy shop. Despite my hypothermic brain fog caused by trying to take advantage of the outdoor light in a short sleeve shirt, I realized while I was out there that this Ikat top and these embroidered jeans (which I just so happened to have on) did indeed create a bit of a look. I have quite a few of these Ikat and Aztec-inspired print items from the 90s and 2000s in the shop - I am drawn to these prints at the best of times, but especially at this time of year - they're a nice antidote to all the darkness. And yes, I suppose mean that literally and figuratively. A few weeks ago, pre-lockdown, I had to make a trip to Glasgow and was struck at just how dark everyone's sartorial game was. I mean sure, it's January, but I think that's exactly why I like color at this time of year. When the sun doesn't even think about bringing in the light until well after 830 am and starts going down at 315 pm, you've got to get your light somewhere. Sometimes you just have to bring it yourself. Vintage 90s wrap top | Rock & Roll Denim embroidered jeans

If you've visited the vintage shop or even just have been reading the blog for a while now, my love of all things western and fringey will come as no surprise. This affinity is more than just a fangirl enthusiasm for the yee-haw factor, or an exaggerated expression of my Americanness here in the Scottish Highlands. To me, fringe acts as a sort of fashion fidget spinner; it's a completely functionless embellishment by modern standards, only really good for lulling us into a sense of calm with its swoosh, a pleasant diversion to play with while you stand in line at the DMV. But the underlying theme here is really that fringe is just fun. Fringe is the sartorial equivalent of throwing your hands in the air and yelling "Wheeeeeeee!" at the top of your lungs. Since things pretty much suck for a lot of people in the world right now, I think we could all do with a bit more simple, purposeless fun in our lives. This is certainly one way to take a step in that direction if you're so inclined. As purposeless fun goes, fringe is fairly easy to obtain, less sedentary than bingeing Netflix, and a whole lot healthier than booze. Here are a few pieces I've recently added to the shop and my personal collection. Because sometimes stock originally intended for the shop doesn't quite make it to its final destination. Sorry not sorry. Look 1 | L & B fringe leggings, similar | Chinese Laundry Austin concho booties | French Connection high low turtleneck sweater Look 2 | Vintage 80s Fringed Jacket | Free People Just Float On flare jeans | WalMart sunglasses Look 3 | Vintage 90s Fringed Suede Jacket Look 4 | Vintage 80s Cropped Suede Fringe Jacket Look 5 | Vintage 1970s Fringed Southwestern Suede Jacket | thrifted graphic tee, similar | squash blossom necklace (old), similar | Southwestern concho earrings (old), similar | denim leggings (old), similar |Frye boots (old), similar Look 6 | Thrifted Philosophy t-shirt, similar

Oh, hey! Yeah, just nipping out to the shed to get some wood in my vintage dress, high-heeled boots, jewelry, and a hat...no biggie. I think I speak for us all when I say that this is in fact, not an accurate representation of that newest of fashion genres, "2020 apocalyptic lockdown chic." I'm also happy to report that after several months in the US, two international flights, and a fair bit of driving from Wisconsin to Florida, I appear thus far to have come out the other side in one piece. Here but for the grace. But I want to be very clear about the fact that this is not luck. I am an advanced practice nurse, a religious mask-wearer and hand washer, an embracer of social isolaton as a lifestyle choice, and I suppose having actual training in the proper donning and doffing of PPE doesn't hurt either. Because, science. What's really going on here is that I was going through my unlisted stock for the vintage shop, trying to fish-out all the 80s pieces since I've put the entire decade on sale for the month of November, and out popped this dress. I instantly remembered how I was immediately struck by the black and red print when I found it. You just don't see black and red as a popular color story these days, but in the 80s? It was everywhere. This is the second black and red 80's piece I've put in the shop today. This was the first one. I KNOW, RIGHT!? This blouse tickles me. It's so 80s. It's like 80s Annie Oakley hooked up with one of the Chippendales dudes and had a kid and that kid was a blouse. But I digress. Let's go back to talking about this 80s dress. First off, I feel like I need to just get out in front of it. YES. There are shoulder pads in this dress. But they're not overwhelming. Sure, you can take out the shoulder pads in 80's garments, but if they're not massive linebacker pads, I kind of like to leave them. I think design details like shoulder pads and wonky bat sleeves and Michael Jackson shoulder pleats often prevent people from really seeing these 80s pieces for what they could be in 2020. A lot of them have zero hanger appeal, it's true. But seriously, try them on once in a while if you get a chance. They actually make more sense on the body than they do on the hanger. This dress is definitely one of those 80's secretary dresses (instant images of that movie Working Girl where all the women are walking through Manhattan in dresses like this and bright white sneakers, their real shoes in their handbags). This dress was definitely meant for someone much smaller than me, as evidenced by the matching fabric belt that is several sizes too small for me. This dress was probably meant to fit much blousier than it does on me, as was the norm in the 80s. But if you overlook that potential 80s design hangup, what you're left with is a really lovely vintage dress with a surprising number of styling possibilities, shoulder pads and all. So in conclusion, wear your dang mask, wash your hands, and when you can, try on that weird-looking 80s piece that made you pause for a moment. Nine West Boots (old), similar | Charlie 1 Horse Highway Hat | similar earrings similar necklace

Up until yesterday, it was pretty hard for me to really think in terms of the fall clothes that I pretty much live in year-round when I'm in the UK. Here in Florida, it's been pretty consistently in the high 80s and 90s pretty much every day. Yesterday, it finally broke towards the Florida winter temperatures, and was a frigid (snort) 75. I'm flying back to the UK on Tuesday (don't worry, I already voted), so it was pretty nice being able to finally open the house up at night. And I suppose it's actually time I start thinking about fall clothes again, if only for my own survival once I land. This little jacket is pretty much everything I love about late 90s-early 2000s fashion all in one place. My very favorite thing about this piece is that it's 80% silk, so you get a jacket look with of all these fall colors, yet without the weight or scratchiness of heavy, wooly fabrics. Even when I'm in a cold climate, I find all these wooly, tweedy pieces, as much as I love the way they look, to be just too damn hot and scratchy for indoor wear. This jacket packs a nice big punch without the weight, and it will layer nicely as well. So let's talk late 90s fashion. Short sleeved blazers with a little puff in the sleeve, swing jackets, peter pan collars, lots of earthy tones (so much brown) and Aztec-inspired prints were all over the place. This little jacket brought back all sorts of fashion memories. I worked in retail on and off quite a bit during that time period, and I can remember all of these pieces like the back of my hand after hours "shop-girling-it"; folding and sorting and picking garments up off of dressing room floors and making them look nice again. Which brings up a point...the picking things up off of dressing room floors, that is. Seriously, who does that? Who throws shop garments on the floor and just....leaves them there!? There are precious few things that tell the world that you are a gigantic spoiled jerk incapable of adulting more pointedly than going into a shop dressing room, trying a bunch of things on, then leaving them all rumpled on the floor or balled-up in a corner. Even just writing about it makes me all ornery. So. Rude. But I digress. Apart from apparently triggering some residual dressing room sensory anger, the psychological associations I have with late 90s fashion pieces are nothing but positive and fun. To complete my Y2K " Geez I hope my AOL doesn't crash when the clock turns to 2000" look, I added a similarly-dated red leather envelope clutch for color and happiness. Because that's what we all need right now, right? Color. And. Happiness. Both of these pieces are available in the Highland Fashionista Etsy Shop.

You guys. You wanna feel old as dirt for a minute? Look what I found. Ah, yes. The good old days. The days back in the Y2K era when the worst thing you'd see when you turned on the TV or logged-on to your glacial-speed internet was the absolute assault of celebrities in velour Juicy Couture track suits (doesn't that sound good right about now against the backdrop of our constant doom-scroll reality?) And they were always wearing those chunky flip flops or Fila slides, or UGGS, and they always had massive handbags on their arms. Usually a Louis Vuitton Speedy or a Chloé Paddington or some such. Remember that? Did you know that there was (or maybe still is) an exhibit in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London featuring one of these babies? I am not even kidding. One of the things that really lights my fire about running my little Etsy vintage shop is that I get to have little fashion moments like this. When I happened across this Juicy Couture track suit on one of my recent vintage recon missions, I literally yelled "OH MY GAWD, NO EFFING WAY" out loud in the store. Nobody even noticed. It's Florida. This is the state where people pull baby alligators out of their yoga pants and have unsecured uranium bouncing around in the back seat of the car when they get pulled over. You have to work a lot harder than that just yelling loudly down here if you want people to think you're off your nut. So here it is. That's really all I got. Yep, it's a real, no-foolin', purple velour Juicy Couture track suit (this one is clearly a classy, refined one that doesn't have any booty bling), and yes, it is in my shop, should you feel the need to add this fine museum piece (snort) to your collection. I really just wanted you guys to see it, because as you and I both know, fashion is sometimes just freaking hilarious.

I know I haven't been hitting you guys with a lot of daily outfit posts lately. Truth be told, I'm still in the US for another few weeks, and this being a pandemic, and it still being pretty damn hot out there right now in Florida, I'm really only ever in a pair of cutoffs and a -shirt most days. Or in my scooter gear if I'm going somewhere. There's not a lot of variety in my sartorial diet right now. But that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about sartorial things. I'm still curating the vintage shop, and in doing so I inevitably happen upon pre-loved pieces that find their way into my closet. This is one of them. In fact, come to think of it, with the exception of the jewelry and shoes (okay and the underwear), absolutely everything about this look is secondhand. The jeans are early 2000s era bootcut Hudson Jeans (that I was going to list in the vintage shop then lost the heart), the gorgeous leather belt an unbranded but truly spectacular seven dollar thrift store find, the tank from a Goodwill haul last summer, and the piece de résistance - this duster. I think this duster is originally from Target (pron: Tar-jay), and it was actually on one of the mannequins in a thrift store in my hometown a couple of weeks ago as I walked in with my sister. It was rumpled and the fringes were all knotted and tangled, but I knew instantly I wanted it, so I wrestled the manneqin for it right there and then, with an audience of people gawking at me. I handily won the wrestling match, by the way. Skinny b**ch never stood a chance. It took a good washing and me literally combing-out the fringes on the thing with one of those little black barber shop combs, but it was worth it in the end. It's a beautiful piece, and I'm really loving how you can just throw it on and go. And yes, I gave the poor mannequin a different top to wear to cover herself in her humiliation of such a decisive defeat. I'm not a complete barbarian.

Another wonderful surprise package from RealHer found its way to me a little over a week ago. They've rolled-out five new shades of their Matte Liquid Lipstick, and sent them to me to take for a spin. For most of last week, I wore a new shade every day. You'll remember from my post not so long ago that these RealHer liquid Matte lipsticks are literally the only liquid matte lipstick I'll even go near. They stay on beautifully, aren't overly drying, and can be used as a stain or a base to create endless other looks. Just today, I had no makeup on, but put a bit of one of the pink shades on before I nipped out on my scooter. the weather went from Florida sun to wind to drizzle while I was out, but my lips stayed put. That lipstick looked the same when I came home hours later as it did when I put it on. These new shades really go from one end of the spectrum to the other, and even though at first glance I thought perhaps some of them might be...er...challenging for me, especially with a bit of sun on my skin, They are all pretty wearable, albeit with differing levels of drama. Just like real life, I suppose. I did this little experiment by wearing these shades exactly as I would in my daily life, as opposed to as one might for the camera. In other words, if it looks like I'm wearing minimal make-up, that's because more often than not, I am. That's how I roll most days, especially when it's hot outside. So let's get to it, shall we? Shade: I WILL RISE This was the lightest shade of the bunch, and probably too light for my slightly olive, tanned skin. It was sort of like putting concealer on my lips, but in the spirit of the exercise, I decided just to go with it and make it into a LEWK. On me, this shade really was a very 1960s white-out kind of shade so it cried out for a dark eye. So that's what I did,. It's more makeup than I normally wear during the day, but I ended up really liking the look. Even with my bra strap hanging out in the photo. Yep. We're all about keepin' it real over here at Highland Fashionista HQ. Shade: I AM ENOUGH This is a shade that I would buy ten thousand times over. In fact, it's a shade that I probably have ten thousand versions of right now. On me, I Am Enough is a perfect neutral shade for those low/no makeup days as well as a perfect base for any other. It is the kind of look I wear every day and offers just a hint of color. I especially liked this one with a bit of sun on my skin. For me, I consider this shade an essential. Shade: I AM BRILLIANT I Am Brilliant is a lovely mauve-based pink that I would place firmly in the "everyday" category. Because I have sun on my skin right now, it was a bit on the light side for me at the time of this photo, but this is one that I would say is slightly more intentional and finished of a look (than say the more neutral previous shade I Am Enough) in that it gives a hint of color without needing to scream it at you. I think we've all had enough screaming in 2020, am I right? Shade: I AM A GODDESS My reaction when I first encountered this shade was "...oh boy" followed by a conciliatory "well, it was nice of my 1990s lipstick to pay me a visit after all these years." Once was the time I wore a shade this dark as a part of my larger 1990s uniform. That was nearly three decades ago, and if I do go dramatic these days, I tend to favor brighter reds, pinks, and corals on account of the hair. That said, the shade was not as harsh on me as I had envisioned. Granted, I think this shade would look best on someone a with dark skin, or conversely, someone with porcelain skin who's really making it a look, but I did manage to find a happy balance with this one. It is a very blue-based shade, and with sun on my skin, it made for an odd contrast. I also found it to be way too opaque if I applied it straight from the tube with liner and allowed it to dry down; it required a bit of blotting, and was a bit harder to get even due to the relative opacity of the shade. Would I buy this shade? Probably not at age 49. My 29 year old self would have been all over it. But this shade is a commitment, and I am inherently lazy. But you never know - these days I tend to eschew certain shades, then shortly thereafter wish I had it when something comes up. Shade: I AM AMAZING I saved this one for last because it was hands-down my favorite. I AM AMAZING is a bright, firey orange-red (the swatch in the photo just doesn't do it justice). I knew the minute I unpacked this one it was going to be the favorite. This is how I like to bring the drama. On me, this shade had all of the drama of the darker I AM A GODDESS, but without the trickiness of application. Perhaps it is on account of the warmer shade matching my skin tone better, but this shade went right on without any hassle, and stayed there. This shade is one of those shades where the lipstick is literally the only makeup you will need. And yes, it shouts. But I happen like its message.