I first became aware of Lora Arellano a few years ago after Rihanna tagged her in an Instagram photo. I’ve been a big fan of Rihanna’s makeup looks for a long time, so when I discovered Lora was Rihanna’s makeup artist, I immediately became a big fan of Ms. Arellano. I started following her on Instagram and on Snapchat and on YouTube and… Ok, I know it sounds a little stalker-ish, but I really love Lora’s cool-girl style — a mix of 40s pin-up girl, meets LA skater chic, meets rock star. I also love looking at, and trying to replicate, her flawless makeup application. When I heard she had a makeup line in the works, I didn’t need to see it to know that it would be dope.
Lora Arellano (and co-founder Dana Bomar) launched Melt Cosmetics with a line of four boldly colored, matte lipsticks. They were an instant hit! Since then, Melt has expanded to 20+ lipsticks, a line of liquid lipsticks, lip pencils, highlighters, and my favorite, eyeshadow stacks. Each stack consists of circular, magnetized eyeshadow tins that “stack” together to form a small cylinder. I chose to buy the popular Rust Stack which includes five colors: Classic, Antique, Rubbish, Rust, and Rott. Each color in the palette is a beautiful matte earth tone. Not only can you wear any one of the colors in the Rust Stack alone, you can also blend and combine the colors to create a wide range of looks, from a dramatic smokey eye to a subtle natural eye, all with one palette.
My favorite, and most used, color in the stack is Rubbish, a rich caramel shade. I use it over my entire eye to achieve a bronzed look or just over my lid for a naturally gorgeous eye. Coming in at a close second is Antique, which is a light peachy color. Antique is great as a transition color or just on the lid to brighten up and open the eyes. Rust and Rott are darker shades that look great in the crease or as a liner. And Classic, a nice vanilla shade, is perfect for highlighting. The Rust Stack is the perfect palette to play around with to create scores of beautiful, eye-catching looks (sorry, not sorry for the pun).
The Takeaway
The gorgeous colors inspired me to buy the Rust Stack, but I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that the shadows are also highly pigmented and long wearing. What more could a girl ask for? The $58 Rust Stack is available at Melt Cosmetics.
