Polarbelle posted last week about the impressive variety of drugstore offerings carried at Anchorage Fred Meyer stores, and I won’t repeat what she said except to reiterate how much fun it is to shop the makeup aisles at my friendly neighborhood Freddy’s. I mostly love drugstore brands for fun color cosmetics (although lately I’ve been loving a L’Oréal foundation, and Maybelline The Falsies is my new favorite mascara), so I took advantage of a buy-one-get-one-half-off sale to snap up the
Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers Hauntingly Hip kits for Halloween. With the coupon, I got all four kits (usually $5.99 each) for just under $18.
Each kit comes with a nine-color palette (a mix of glitters and metallics), a black eye pencil, and three stencils. There are some duplicates among the palettes, but not among the stencils. There’s an angel kit, a devil, a witch, and a butterfly, which was the one I broke into first (with no battery in my camera; hence the iffy cell phone photo):
The kit is easy enough to use: You stick the stencil to your face and smooth the makeup over the exposed areas. The butterfly only took me a couple of minutes to do, although once I peeled the stencil off I realized I should have started by putting down a base of cream shadow to fill in the wing. As it was, it looked fine, but kind of empty. (Note: The shape of the butterfly is all done using colors from the Madame Butterfly palette; the glitter is from a NYX glitter palette.)
Over the weekend, I did a few more quick tests with the other stencils. I tried the mask from Bewitching Beauty, using the blacks and purples from that palette:
Each of the kits comes with a mask stencil and two additional stencils. I tried putting the cauldron from Bewitching Beauty on my arm, but was really dissatisfied with the results; there was just too much cauldron to fill in once the stencil came off.
For these wings from Gilded Angel, I did an outline using the black pencil and then filled in with white and gold, with some blue from the Madame Butterfly kit on the tips. The effect was really pretty:
One thing to note about the makeup in the Hauntingly Hip palettes is that they are not glitter all the way down. The colors are actually all metallic, but some of them have a layer of glitter on top. It’s a little bit deceptive, although the metallic is actually much better for stenciling than, say, the glitters from my NYX glitter palette (which, as you can see in the Madame Butterfly photo, are just glitter with no real pigmentation). If you’re looking for thick, glittery colors, you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re a fan of metallics, though, you’ll be in heaven. Another caveat: The consistency on these isn’t great for non-Halloween purposes; even with primer underneath, my eyelids creased like crazy, and I only had these looks on for a few minutes each. The sponge applicators are, perhaps unsurprisingly, not really great for applying these colors, even with the stencils. I had the best luck using either my fingers (which the package recommends) or a brush with short, stiff bristles. Some of the colors apply more evenly than others. The package also recommends leaving the stencil on until the makeup dries, but I don’t think that’s necessary. (I also don’t know how dry the makeup will actually get; some of the colors seemed awfully greasy.)
These were all quick looks — I spent the longest on the Devilish Diva eye, but even that only took about five minutes. If you were willing to take some time and experiment, there’s a ton of possibility in these kits.
Some other thoughts:
- The mask stencils were too wide for my face — and I have a great big melon head, so if they’re too big for me, they’re going to be too big for a lot of people. The Bewitching Beauty mask went about a centimeter past my hairline on each side, so I didn’t fill in the whole thing. I cut the Devilish Diva mask in half and only did one eye.
- Some of the stencils will require scissors for other reasons. The butterfly mask actually comes in one piece as a butterfly. You’ll have to cut it in half if you want to recreate the look on the package. And the Devilish Diva mask, weirdly, had a solid center that would have covered my entire eye (everything you see that’s red above) if I hadn’t snipped it out. I then had to figure out how to fudge the straight line above my eye.
- The stencils are vinyl and theoretically reusable, but if you’ve ever stuck a sticker to your skin and then peeled it off, I don’t have to tell you that these stencils lose much of their adhesive capability after one use. They might be durable enough that you could rinse them off and use a little bit of eyelash glue or something to stick them on again.
- The black eye pencil is awesome. Soft and dark and very smooth. I’m glad I’ve got four of them, because these might very well enter my daily routine.
Ultimately, I won’t turn to these palettes for reliable, durable colors, but the kits are great for experimenting with some fun fantasy makeup, and totally ideal for an easy Halloween look. These were just some quick trials I tossed together in a few minutes each, so if you’re willing to invest some time and creativity, a Hauntingly Hip kit could be the foundation of a pretty spectacular Halloween look.
Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers Hauntingly Hip Eye Kits
Bottom Line: Lots of fun for playtime; not terribly practical for everyday.
Price: $
Tip: Use a good primer and combine with more substantial color cosmetics for a bit more staying power.
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Stay Pretty, Miranda and Mackenzie M.
Did you have to cut out the clear part in the stencil? The directions say only to remove the backing and when I do all the spaces are filled in with clear plastic
My stencil is very strange and complicated. There isn't anyway to put the cream on my skin because the plastic is there and I'm not sure to cut the clear plastic out or what. Please help?
Weird — maybe this is something new with this year's stencils? I did this post in 2011, so it sounds like they've changed something about the stencils this year. As I recall, mine had a clear plastic layer over the top, but it was clearly separate and peeled off easily.
I reached out to Wet N Wild on Twitter — here's hoping they can get you some answers!
I can't figure the stencils out either. It's like what peels off is opposite of what you want. Searched youtube for how-tos but there is nothing.
I just got the Pixie Princess kit. There is clear plastic on top and it's not easy to get off. I tested a stencil I won't use for Halloween. I removed the clear plastic, no way can the make up go through it.
I also got the Pixie Princess Kit. Did not try it out yet, but I got the plastic off. There is three layers; White backing, stencil, and clear plastic. I pealed off the top clear plastic first then the backing and now its stuck to my face. Yay!
Its Halloween and I'm sitting here trying to figure out this stencil. Obviously doesn't work at all. I don't want a giant black rectangle with clear spaces in the middle on my daughters face.