This week I am pleased to bring Kristen's fall color report, featuring Urban Decay and the new James Bond collection from Revlon. Enjoy!

Kristen is a 26 year-old child support enforcement worker and mother of one from a Texas town just east of Houston. Kristen frequently makes trips to Houston for cosmetics and skincare and the people at the Laura Mercier counter and the Sephora store know her by name. In fact, she named every color on one of the makeup artist's face and she offered Kristen a job working for Laura Mercier! She has combination skin that is exacerbated in the summer (due to the extreme humidity in Texas) and normal to dry in the winter. She is acne prone with redness around the nose and chin and a handful of red acne scars, which she is always looking for something to even those out. Until then she has settled into finding the perfect foundation/concealer/powder system to cover it. Kristen has large, almond-shaped blue/green eyes that she considers to be her best feature. She is a natural brunette but highlights so it's blonde and "Julia Robert's curly" that she straightens. Kristen's real joy is not finding the perfect product for herself, but applying makeup on someone else and watching them stare in the mirror in awe. Have a question for Kristen? Email her here.

Take it away, Kristen!

Urban Decay Gypsy Den Fall Collection
I am a huge Urban Decay fan. Their stuff is not too young for me yet (I'm 26), so I just had to run to the store and get the new goodies from their new line "Gypsy Den."

Eyeshadow and Pocket Rocket in Goddess ($15 and $17, respectively)
The Eyeshadow is definitely a keeper. It made my blue/green eyes really stand out because it is a deep blue color. While it does have the Urban Decay signature shimmer to it, I am able to wear it to work (and I work in a relatively conservative state office). I like to line my eyes with it with a flat liner brush. The texture is not super gritty and applying it is a breeze; even if you mess up, the color doesn't smudge everywhere. It stays on, too, which is a big plus for me.

Save your money, however, on the Pocket Rocket. It's too fat to line easily, it doesn't come off the pencil well, and I found that I would rub it along my lash line too hard. It was not smooth at all. The eyeshadow is much better to use as a liner.

Eyeshadow in Mildew ($15)
Again, another winner. It's a deep green color and since I have blue/green eyes, it also made my eyes stand out tremendously. Same glitter/shimmer factor as the Goddess Eyeshadow and I wear it to work, too, as a liner.

ID LipGloss ($15)
This is a nice pale rosy color gloss. The texture is not goopy, but the staying power is not great, but then I rarely find a lip gloss that has great staying power. You only need a little, or otherwise it will feel like you have a jar of Vaseline on your lips. I find that it works best to layer it over a lipstick rather than wearing it alone. If you don't care for color too much, this is nice, but there are cheaper alternatives out there.

ID Nail Polish ($9.50)
Such a great polish! I had Barbie-pink nail color on my nails when I tried it and it gave it a much-needed oomph. It is definitely a nice alternative to boring red since the holidays are fast approaching. It has just the right amount of glitter in it and it was super easy to apply. I applied it to my own nails and didn't make a mess at all, and that is saying a lot since I can't paint my own nails to save my life. It dried pretty quickly and didn't scuff - and I am hard on my nails. It would look great over red, but it really is perfect alone. Winner!

Smoke Out Eye Pencil ($14)
I am not a pencil fan, especially when I discovered cake liners. After buying this pencil, I realized that I wasn't missing anything. Since I love to do my eyes with the smokey look, I thought this black pencil with a smudge tip would have good smudging abilities. It didn't. Like the Pocket Rocket, I couldn't get it to go on. I like my eyes lined with black and it just didn't go on well at all, and not very dark. If you are a pencil gal, by all means buy their regular eye pencils. I have Soot in my drawer at work for touch-ups during the day and it works wonderfully. It goes on great, no tugging and gives good color. Heck, it's easier to smudge with this pencil than the Smoke Out Pencil.

Pleather Pencil in Naked ($14)
This pencil is cool. It comes with its own special sharpener since it's a little fatter than regular lip and eye pencils. The color is kind of a mauvy, dusty rose, I'd say. It goes on really creamy and it gives adequate staying power since its color closely resembles the color of lips. It goes really well with the rest of the line since the eyeshadows are bold this season. A big plus is that when I accidentally left my makeup bag in my car when it was super hot outside, it didn't melt. I can't say that about the lipstick tubes.

Ink in Bitten ($17)
YIKES, I thought when I first applied it. It has a marker-type applicator and you literally draw it on. It was a burgundy/red color. It went on messy and uneven and since the idea is to stain your lips, that wasn't good. I couldn't get it to look right on my lip line and after blotting it several times and applying the clear lipgloss (included), my lips felt gooey. After more blotting and a couple of hours later, the color finally "settled down" and it looked like I'd just eaten a Popsicle. It had many hours of staying power. It lasted through food, drinks and cleaning my face. It ended up being a nice color, but I didn't like how long it took to get it that way.

You can find Urban Decay at Urbandecay.com and Sephora.com. It is also in most Sephora locations, and at Urban Decay counters in Macy's, Nordstrom and Bloomingdales stores.

Revlon James Bond 007 (trio sets) ($6.82 each)
I passed the huge and quite colorful display of the new Revlon products at my local drugstore. I generally do not buy drugstore brand products, but I was super excited to see this stuff. Displayed were these trio sets in a myriad of colors. Each contained a cream eyeshadow in a tube, nail polish and a tube of lipstick, all full sizes. I chose the following 2 sets:

GoldenEye
The nail polish is called GoldenEye and is a gold glittery color. By itself, it would give a French Manicure or bare nails a nice sheen. It goes on great and the color is beautiful. It is one of the best polishes I've tried as far as consistency and ease of application is concerned, not to mention it is just a pure pretty color. The eyeshadow, also called Goldeneye, is kind of brassy and dull. It was very easy to apply and the consistency is very nice, but the color just didn't do it on my skin. I think someone with darker skin would appreciate this more. It made me look washed out. I am not a cream eyeshadow kind of gal, so it's just as well. The lipstick, called Golden Chrome, is not that great either. As the name implies, it's a gold-colored lipstick. It doesn't slide on well and the color is not what I like. Plus, the color doesn't show up all that well. I must say, however, that I don't think I've seen many people who look good in a pure gold lipstick. Skip this trio, that is if you can't live without the nail polish.

Diamonds are Forever
Anything that is silver, I gravitate toward, so I happily purchased this trio. The nail polish is definitely silver. Not something to wear on a daily basis, but if you like to have fun on weekends and stand out, this polish is for you. It goes on pretty, and very silver. It's got a shimmer/glitter factor to it, so it's not a plain matte silver. Definitely a keeper for New Year's. The cream eyeshadow, again, I wasn't too wild about it. It just made me look like I had cheap Halloween makeup on, but I did like it better than the gold one mentioned above. The color was a chrome silver without any shimmer/glitter to it, so to me, it looked boring. I prefer Clinique's Silver Lightning cream eyeshadow. It goes on much easier and a much prettier color. The lipstick came in Silver City Pink and it's your basic pink. Same story as above. The color didn't apply well and wouldn't stay on. It was much too pink for me.

You can find the Revlon James Bond 007 trio sets at a drugstore near you.

Thanks, Kristen, for a great new color report. I hope you enjoyed this issue of The Cosmetic Report!