'cause you're crazy beautiful

sorry :/

2010-11-07T16:36:00.003-05:00

sorry for my absence. i started a new job last week and it's been a bit of a transition for me. i just haven't found time in my schedule lately to write some posts. and there haven't been a whole lot of beauty products that have really blown my mind either. i will return eventually, i hope. until then, hope all is well with you all.

misikko corioliss giveaway winner

2010-09-06T17:01:00.003-04:00

well, i didn't have a lot of people enter my giveaway. but what's done is done, and entry for the giveaway ended saturday. i just wrote all the qualifying entry's email addresses on paper and did a "pick a name out of a hat" kind of thing.

effortlessly chic had statistics on her side, and she ended up being the winner. ;)

congrats!

Misikko Corioliss Classic Pro Flat Iron 1" Review and Giveaway

2010-08-28T23:18:00.008-04:00

i was lucky enough to have a corioliss classic 1" pro flat iron sent to me by missiko.

misikko sells a variety of styling tools and beauty products. they don't just sell flat irons. they also carry some of the best hair dryers along with a variety of chi flat irons (which i know are a favorite among many flat iron enthusiasts).

this particular flat iron is described on their website as "The Corioliss Ceramic Flat Iron - Classic Series features adjustable heat, 1" plates for versatility and the Corioliss reputation the world has come to love."

the features listed on the website are:

Ceramic plates for negative ions and hair-healthy far infrared heat, creating shiny, frizz-free results
1" plate size for easy styling of short to medium length hairStraighten, flip or curl
Heats up in less than 6 seconds
Adjustable temperature from 140°F to 410°F - great for all hair types
Convenient on/off switch
1 year manufacturer warranty

it's considered one of their more "basic" flat irons, which i think i could agree with. but that's not to say it's not going to get the job done.

i'm fortunate enough that i have pretty manageable hair and it's not super curly. i do have a pretty good natural wave though so i based this review mostly on a basic straightened style. i have used the flat iron to curl my hair as well, but i didn't take any pictures.

my first impression was a good one. the flat iron came quickly and packaged better than any item i've ever received.

when i first opened up the corioliss box and held the flat iron, it felt sturdy, sleek, and good quality.

the flat iron i had been using prior to receiving the corioliss was one i had bought from sally's. i was fairly satisfied with it. my only gripe being that it tended to pull my hair a bit, especially when i was trying to curl it.

my first time using this iron, i was just straightening. the nice thing about this flat iron is it has a little light on the outside that turns green when the iron is heated to the temperature chosen. it heats up very quickly. this helps a lot when you're trying to just to a quick run through of the iron through your hair. i like to do that sometimes if i'm in a rush and am looking for a more "natural" straight style rather than a perfectly pin straight look.

i was also impressed with how quickly i was able to do any type of styling. i'm not one to stand around for an hour and do my hair, so i like when a tool is quick and efficient.

the flat iron didn't tug or pull on my hair at all and even when curling, i didn't find that i got a bunch of little hairs pulled out like i do with my other flat iron.

when i took pictures from this i didn't end up getting the best pictures to demonstrate how well the iron works, but i have used it a few times since those pictures and i have successfully gotten a few different straightening styles with it.

overall, i'd say this is a pretty good quality straightener. i will say that it's a good basic higher end flat iron. i don't think it would would as quickly on someone with much thicker hair. but if you're looking for a decent flat iron, this is a good choice. and don't hesitate to order from misikko. my experience with them was a great one and i'd definitely go to them for future hair and beauty purchases.

before

after

now for the fun part: the giveaway!

misikko is giving away one of the corioliss 1" classic pro flat irons in black to one of my lucky subscribers!

here's the deal.
to enter, you MUST be a subscriber to this blog.

for extra entries:
1. Follow Misikko on Twitter (@misikko)
2. Blog about the giveaway on a personal website. (send me the link if you do)
3. Join Misikko’s newsletter
4. “Like” Misikko on Facebook
5. Interact with Misikko’s Facebook – Comment on a post or picture, or write on their wall (don't just leave a random contest entry comment - ask a question, comment on a recent style, just as long as it's something related to beauty. no meanie comments ;])

please leave a separate comment for every entry you decide to do. (and don't forget your email address, i need to be able to get in touch with you!)
the lucky winner must be from us or canada. contest will end saturday september 4th 2010. winner will be chosen at random.

Disclaimer: i was given a flat iron to review, i was not paid for my review and everything in it is my honest opinion.

upcoming review

2010-08-07T23:35:00.000-04:00

so i've returned from hiatus a little sooner than expected. i will be coming back shortly to do a review and giveaway so don't forget to check back soon for it!

taking a break

2010-07-13T10:10:00.001-04:00

i have to come to tell you, my readers, that i will be taking a break from blogging for a while. i can't say with certainty that i'm going to abandon my blog all together, but i don't think you'll be seeing any new posts from me for a while. i've got a bit much on my plate already and i'd hate to neglect you all without a fair warning.

see you sometime in the future.

foot in mouth

2010-06-27T03:06:00.002-04:00

i need to correct something i said in an earlier post. i almost, just almost, talked my lovely make up for ever full cover concealer to anything but fantastic. the other day after a massive breakout i tried using my lancome concealer on my acne. no go. it was too dark and darkened all the areas. it works well under my eyes, but my mufe still holds #1.

and there you have it.

water

2010-06-25T11:29:00.004-04:00

i think i might have posted something similar to this at some point before, but i feel it's necessary to talk about it again.

what is it? the importance of water.

once in a while i'll have a crazy breakout that's unrelated to my cycle and i sit around and wonder why. this past one i blamed on the changing weather, thinking that the heat was making me oiler/sweatier and therefore causing me to breakout. but after thinking about it a little more, i realized that the past week or so, i hadn't been getting nearly enough water. very little actually.

i do this to myself occasionally. i'll get a little lazy paying attention to my water intake, i'll start drinking less hydrating fluids and BAM! massive breakout.

once i start drinking more water and of course, making sure to pay attention to my skincare regimen, my skin starts looking better very quickly.

i'm realizing so much the importance of keeping myself hydrated. it's not just about your body, it's a crucial part to your skincare regimen. all the skin products in the world won't matter if you're not getting enough water.

lip balm and other rambles

2010-06-17T16:01:00.011-04:00

as i'm sure you've noticed my absence lately, i have to tell you that it's not because of my lack of love for beauty products.

i've been on a bit of a small budget lately and therefore haven't had much room to buy cosmetics. and when i have had a few extra bucks, i haven't really found much that appeals to me lately. except for the occasional lipstick (which i have to remind myself that i have far too many that need love first).

anyway, so since i haven't been able to buy much lately, the only thing that i don't feel guilty buying is lip balm. i fight a never ending battle with keeping my lips smooth. i've overcome a habit of biting the skin on my lips so the more i have something on my lips, the better off i am.

i've become quite fond of carmex. i went through a tube pretty quickly and recently at walmart i saw something new by carmex that seemed like it might even work better than the regular tube version. it's called carmex moisture plus. it's fantastic! it's everything i've wanted in a lip balm. it's got a bit of a menthol feeling, much like carmex but on a less intense scale (which i like, sometimes if i put too much carmex on before i'd be eating menthol for the next few minutes. ew.). it's also super moisturizing and it's in stick form which is also nice as it's not as easy to overdo.

i love carmex products because they're one of the few lip balms that actually moisturize. so many of the lip balms you buy at the drugstore are just a bunch of wax that retain whatever moisture you already have in your lips, but don't add any extra. this doesn't help much when your lips are dry!

i also went browsing in rite aid today and finally got my hands on some eos lip balm. i've been wanting to try this stuff for a while now. no review yet as i haven't gotten to use it yet, but i'll keep you posted! they get high marks for design, if nothing else!

so besides lip balm, i've been re-loving my makeup a little to try and get some use out of what i have since i can't buy much.

i've been really into simple/minimal eyes and loving bold lips. i know, i know, bold lips are popular in the winter. but who makes these rules??

lately i've been doing a lot of looks with just a bit of black liner on my upper lid just slightly winged out with a bold lip.

also, i know you've seen my post gushing over make up for ever's full cover concealer. don't fret, i still love that concealer. but i find that it's so opaque (which isn't bad when you need it) that when i'm wearing little to no foundation, it gives me a bit of a white cast around the eye compared to the rest of my face. especially in photos. so i've been using lancome's effacernes waterproof concealer. it gives me excellent coverage just like mufe's but it's slightly less dry so it blends a little more naturally when i'm not wearing much else on my face. it's also just a tiny bit more of a natural match to my skin (emphasis on slightly, as mufe is also an amazing match to my skin, it's just a bit paler so maybe thats why its better for me in the winter)

so that's it. that's my update on where i've been at lately and what i've been loving. hopefully i'll have something again for you guys soon!

laura mercier oil free tinted moisturizer review

2010-05-09T21:34:00.004-04:00

boy has it been a long time! so sorry for being away guys. been pretty busy working, and ironically, been pretty broke as well so my makeup purchasing has been pretty slim lately (with the exception of my purchase of cyndi's viva glam lippie, and it is love let me tell you. but that's for another post..)

so i figured i had promised a review on laura mercier's oil free tinted moisturizer and i want to deliver on that because it has definitely earned it's review.

i've pretty much been using it non stop since i bought it. it's been perfect for the warmer weather, and for keeping my complexion looking fresh, natural and hydrated (i do have to give partial credit to being diligent about water intake for a lot of these things as well).

as i mentioned in my previous post, i had originally tried a sample of the non oil-free version in a shade darker (nude) than what i bought (porcelain). it was a massive fail. not only was the color all wrong, but it oxidized badly, went on super patchy and was super oily on my already oily skin. the day i put it on, i looked at myself in natural light in my car and all i could see were streaks of nasty color, i can't blame the color for not matching me, but it doesn't explain it looking so streaky and patchy.

the lack of success with the original formula is what made me so hesitant about trying it again (plus it's not cheap). but i ended up checking out both versions in store, and realized that although the lightest formula isn't super yellow based (which usually ends up with me having an orange face), it wasn't extremely pink, as most of the "lightest" shades are in foundations. i also felt from checking it out in store that the formula seemed a little easier to blend in the oil free version.

so now that i've been using it a while, i can tell you that i LOVE this stuff. now that my skin is for the most part, fairly clear (with the occasional pimple here and there), i find many foundations just too much for my skin. i enjoy seeing a little bit of my natural complexion show through, rather than a face that looks blank/all on tone from wearing a heavier foundation. especially now that the weather is warmer and the sun is shining. i'm loving the "less is more" idea. i've tried to wear a few foundations some days and keep coming back to this.

this tinted moisturizer is definitely a slight bit more coverage than some others i've tried, but not too much that it could be lumped into a foundation category. the color match i bought ended up being perfect. it's actually a tad bit paler than my natural skin but once it's on for a minute or two, it sinks in and blends perfectly with my skin. it give a gorgeous glow without feeling sticky or sliding off. and has just enough coverage to even things out while still letting my skin show through.

as i do have a pretty oily t-zone, i can't say that it stays on all day long in areas like my chin and forehead, but honestly, nothing ever has, and very few foundations actually last ALL day. i can't really hold it against it because besides those areas of my face it does hold up REALLY well. and just makes my skin look so nice and feels so light and natural.

i would definitely check this out if you've been undecided about it. just make sure you really find a good match, and figure out which formula would work for you. as i don't have super dry skin, i hate to say the original formula is bad, it just DID NOT work for me. if you're still a little worried, buy it from sephora. they have a fantastic return policy. because as we all know, nothing works the same on everyone. but this is definitely a product worth checking out.

as of right now, i'm really thinking that this might be one the best tinted moisturizers/foundations i've ever used. and i will definitely repurchase.

gaga ooh lala

2010-04-01T16:52:00.005-04:00

i'm a little late in posting this, as i received this last week. but better late than never!

so viva glam gaga has been all the rage lately! and i hesitated as i saw a bright blue pink and immediately thought of some of mac's past blue pink lipsticks which i loved, but where not very wearable. but i read a few places that it was more sheer and i'm just crazy for gaga so i said, why not!

vg gaga is a sheerer formula. it can be layered to a brighter pink but you can smack on one light layer and it makes it much more wearable for everyday. it's a little brighter than something i'd usually wear on an everyday basis but it's super cute, it goes to a good cause...and it's gaga!

my only gripe is that the formula is not very moisturizing. i find that my lips get a bit dry after a while when i have it on, but i can always put something on under it and it helps, plus it helps sheer it a bit more too.

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

shop shop shop (laura mercier, mac, make up for ever)

2010-03-25T13:25:00.005-04:00

well, i've been doing a bit of shopping lately. i've found a few girls at work who share my love for makeup and so we've gone out a couple times together. we hit up the mall (sephora and mac) and another time we went to the outlets.
i also took a quick trip to the mall myself today as i needed a new eyeliner and sharpener.

i took the plunge and ended up buying laura mercier's oil free tinted moisturizer. i went back and forth about this stuff forever. i had tried a sample of the original in nude and the color looked way off. the next color down - porcelain - sounded like it would be too pink toned so i never bothered to give it a look. but after karlasugar posted swatches of it, i realized that porcelain might be exactly what i need.
i really wanted a lightweight foundation for summer (i have armani's face fabric which is great but i wanted something with a little higher spf that would also sink a bit more into my skin).

so i went to the store and tried porcelain on my jawline and behold! it disappeared. fabulous. so i thought i'd give it a try since it's so highly spoken of. expect a full review once i've used it a bit more.

i picked up make up for ever's aqua eyes liner in black with their sharpener also. last time i was at sephora with my friends i was told by a mua that they liked the mufe liners a bit better than the urban decay ones, so since my urban decay liner was down to a nub, i figured it was a good time to try it!

some pics of other recent purchases when i went out with friends:

all mac eyeshadows. aquavert, warming trend (both from cco). birds & berries, beautiful iris, patina

and check out my new makeup bag! i loved my owl bag but it was a bit hard to find things in and was sometimes a bit too small. i got this at target. i love it!

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

the one that got away

2010-03-14T15:58:00.004-04:00

photo

i went out yesterday and picked up birds & berries eyeshadow (a bit out of my norm but i ended up loving it. more on that in a later post.) but the one thing i really wanted was blue india nail polish. it was sold out at my counter and the make up artist told me all the counters she knew of only got about 6 of them. so i checked the website today and it's sold out there too! i so should have gotten it while it was still there. so sad. i'll have to cross my fingers that it will end up at my local cco because i refuse to pay big bucks for it on ebay or anywhere else.

outlet haul

2010-03-03T14:22:00.003-05:00

so i took a trip to my local outlets and visited the cosmetic company outlet (which sells everything owned by estee lauder. clinique, perscriptives, mac, origins, estee lauder and more) and i also visited the lancome outlet.

my trip to the CCO came to a small haul. i haven't really kept up with mac in a long while, and on top of that, everything i've seen hasn't appealed to me much. they pump out collections like crazy and a lot of the stuff that comes out is so similar to stuff that's already come out. but i did see a few things i liked.

i saw they had a few mineral blush duos from a collection a while back. i had my eye on moon river back when it came out but it didn't hit me enough to spend the money on it so i held off, but seeing it 30% cheaper made it a little more appealing. plus the color looked perfect for spring i also saw 'of summer' eyeshadow (from the rose romance collection, i think) which seemed like the perfect pastel, also for spring.

i headed over to the lancome outlet and they always have this deal at one of their counters 4 products for 40$. this includes a few foundations, powders, blushes, lip products, eyeliners, mascaras, etc. i had been wanting to try a more moisturizing foundation from lancome since i love tient idole so much. so i picked up renergie lift foundation, effacernes concealer (even though i love my mufe full cover, it doesn't hurt to try something new at that price!), i also got a color ideal pressed powder and an eyebrow pencil. i didn't really need the brow pencil but i had to get 4 things for the price and i definitely didn't need anymore lip products so i figured why not. considering the price i paid for all 4 is less than just the price of the foundation regularly!

no reviews yet as i haven't used them much yet but i am liking them all so far.

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

hard candy sheer envy tinted moisturizer

2010-02-28T13:58:00.002-05:00

i've been on a bit of a foundation kick lately (mostly out of interest in finding some decent winter foundations) and being too broke to be able to afford to keep buying tons of higher end ones to support this new obsession, i've been trying out different drugstore brands to find any that actually might work for me.

i decided to try hard candy's tinted moisturizer after reading a few decent reviews online and seeing in store that the lightest shade might actually be yellow toned.

after trying it out a few times, i'd conclude that you could call this more of a hybrid tinted moisturizer/sheer foundation.

the color match it pretty good. the color appears to be a very close match to my skintone, although i feel that it's either oxidizing a bit on me, or just a tad too dark because i feel in some areas that i see a tiny bit of orange, although it never looks uneven or dark overall. it could very well be my imagination, or me just over analyzing and looking far too close to find flaws.

the consistency is nice and what makes me call it a bit more than a tinted moisturizer. it actually gives a decent amount of coverage, although it is sheer, i find many tinted moisturizers don't even offer enough coverage to even out skin color.

as i mentioned before, the one i got is yellow toned which is huge to me as i find many tinted moisturizers are beige toned, which equals orange on me.

it also does a fair amount of moisturizing. i wouldn't personally skip my regular moisturizer for this, but it doesn't leave me dry or accentuate flakes. it also stays put pretty well. it gives a slight glow but still dries down enough that it won't slide right off your face.

overall, i'd say this is actually one of the better tinted moisturizers i've used, which is a big deal considering it's price tag. definitely give this a try if you're looking for something easy and quick to put on but find that many tinted moisturizers won't cover enough for you.

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

favorite - make up for ever full cover concealer

2010-02-28T13:45:00.003-05:00

i love talking about products that i know and love, rather than a new product that may seem to be a favorite at the time, or i might think will a favorite and turns out to just be a passing phase.
tried and true products are few and far between, but when you have them, they're always a staple in your makeup routine.

make up for ever's full cover concealer has become that for me. if you've followed my blog for a while, you'll know i went forever looking for a concealer and came up empty handed after many attempts. this has gone on for years, but i've settled on something and have yet to find anything better.

this concealer means business. it's heavy duty, yet still manages to not look and feel heavy on the skin. you only need a little and you cover so much. there's a great color range. my color, #4 is a nice yellow tone that works wonders not only on my blemishes, uneven spots, and the big hit: under my eyes.

it's waterproof and stays on. it blends well but once it's on, it doesn't get all crease-y under the eyes or fade away after a few minutes.

i'd definitely recommend this for those with oily skin, or for anyone who has stubborn spots that nothing else will cover.

i'll be honest and tell you that i feel as though when i put this on i can still see a little bit of my under eye color still show through, but i'm beginning to think that it might just be me, because they never show up in photos.

i don't believe it's marketed to be used under the eyes because it is a drier concealer compared to those that are made to be put under the eye, but i find any of the creamy ones crease in a few minutes on me, regardless of how much i set them with powder. this stuff i just set and it stays so so well. be careful though, it is still possible to overdo how much you put on and make it look a bit cakey. you really don't need much to cover a lot.

i think anyone who's been hunting for concealers should definitely try this stuff out next time you're at sephora. it's not cheap so ask for a sample before you commit (although sephora does have a fabulous return policy if it really doesn't work for you).

i love this stuff and although i never say never, i don't know if i'll ever find anything to replace it. unless some sort of miracle product comes along ;)

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

product fail - covergirl smokey shadowblast

2010-02-15T19:27:00.005-05:00

as a drugstore brand, i've never been a huge fan of covergirl. i've never found many of their products to really wow me in terms of quality. so why was i compelled to try these smokey shadowblasts? i'm really not sure.

i saw the ads, and then i spotted them at target and for some reason i really wanted to give them a try. i guess it was the smokey part that reeled me in.

i read reviews online and despite all the terrible comments i decided to go buy on anyway.

i chose silver sky since the colors seemed pretty unique. i got it home and immediately decided to try it out. my previous experience with cream eyeshadow sticks has been mixed. mac makes some nice ones and i've used a few drugstore ones in the past that i didn't hate, but didn't love either..

so i take the step 1 end and swipe it all over my lid. the color was nice, but went on my lid super uneven. blending with my finger only managed to wipe half the color off my eyelid. i then decided to try out step 2 once i got a reasonable even coverage of the main color. step 2 didn't even show up. maybe it's just the color i got, but there was not enough of a tone difference between the two for one to become my crease and liner color.

fail.

so i then wipe of step 1 and decide to see how step 2 looks all of my lid, hoping that my purchase was not a complete waste of time. step 2 looked ok, still uneven and required blending, once again erasing have the color in the process. half an hour later i go back to the mirror, crease city. and that's WITH a primer. nothing creases on urban decay primer potion. nothing.

fail again.

overall, don't waste your money. stick with eyeshadow, or try another brand of cream sticks because these suck. i very rarely find a product that completely fails me. usually even if something isn't my cup of tea, i find a way to make it work or just pass it along, but this product just fails in every aspect.

sorry covergirl, great concept, terrible execution.

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

saving face redux

2010-02-15T19:07:00.005-05:00

when i started my blog i spoke a bit about the products that have saved my skin. well now that it's been a while since i started this whole thing, and i've tried many different products since, i thought i'd bring you back to what still saves my skin.

not much has changed since that last post, but i do know even more now about what works for my skin.

i don't wear bare escentuals anymore like i did back then. i don't hate the product, but the finish no longer works on me. i got sick of the itchiness and to get the coverage i want i had to layer it on too heavy and i didn't like the feel of it on my skin.

but as far as what i use during my cleansing and moisturizing stages, i'm sticking with these 4 products.

i start off with philosophy's purity cleanser to remove all my makeup, dirt and oil from the day.

i then use proactiv's renewing cleanser to keep my acne in line. this also takes care of my exfoliating (although sometimes a little stronger exfoliant is needed occasionally if i have too many flakies).

i then use clinique's dramatically different moisturizing gel. this is a super lightweight, but still moisturizing gel. i use this year round. day and night.

for a little extra moisture on areas like my cheeks (especially this winter) i add some of clinique's moisturesurge. during the summer i don't use this as much, mostly just at night. but this winter i've been using it constantly. my skin soaks it up, i love it.

i've tried all sorts of different products for my skincare routine, but i keep coming back to this one. i used to use clinque's whole 3 step system when i started getting my acne but it didn't help and i wasn't a fan of the toner. i stuck with the liquid soap for a while but once i switched to purity again (i used it once a while back before i had a real routine for my skin) i found it removed impurities a lot better and is really gentle on my skin. i even tried bare escentuals moisturizer for a while but i felt like it was making my blackheads worse. there have been many products here and there, but most of them don't last.

another product not included in this post is cover fx's skinprep fx which i've already written about. i do consider that part of my daytime skin routine as i find it does some really good things for my skin besides just being a primer. it's new to my routine which is why i have yet to say that it's a tried and true product for me, but i am loving what it's been doing for me.

i don't have flawless skin, i've tried to achieve it, but i'm starting to think flawless skin is a myth. maybe all the imperfections i see aren't even noticed by others as much as they are by me. and all the people with "perfect" skin probably have all those tiny flaws that only they notice.

i do have acne issues among others, but i'm finally beginning to feel better about my skin, and my routine has a lot to do with it. it takes a long time to figure out what works for you, but eventually most of us do, and even if we stray, we always come back to it.

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

mac custom made quad

2010-02-15T18:59:00.001-05:00

[clockwise from top left: shroom, satin taupe, carbon, brun]

as of recently, mac finally started offering their eyeshadow pans to the public rather then just to pro artists. along with their pans comes their palettes, which come in 4 and 15 pan.

well before they started offering these to everyone, and when i was a mac fanatic, i depotted my own eyeshadows and put them into these quads i would order through macpro.

i also have a couple of 15 pan palettes (i had many but slimmed down my collection tremendously) which hold the eyeshadows i wear less often. but this is my tried and true favorite set of eyeshadows from mac.

this is really a smokey eye palette, but really this palette has become much more versatile than that. not only does it create my favorite smokey eye, but i also throw some brun on my eyebrows when i want to add a little extra to them, and i use carbon as an eyeliner when i want something softer than gel, pencil or liquid liner. shroom is great not just as a highlighter but as a simple wash of color for daytime.

these colors are amazing, even when i'm going through all sorts of stages of makeup love and switching things around in my makeup bag, these never leave. if i had to have only 4 eyeshadows in my makeup bag, these are it (although i'd be sad to never be able to use anything else) ;)

do any of you guys have a certain set of favorite eyeshadows you know you can always fall back on?

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

yellow toned ladies rejoice - bobbi brown foundation

2010-02-15T18:43:00.006-05:00

so remember how i told you that so far make up for ever had been the only foundation yellow enough to match me? well i can now say that's not exactly the case.

i first tried bobbi brown's foundation months ago, i think during the summer. i wanted to give her stuff a shot and decided to see how her foundation was. the mua recommended me her oil free even finish foundation since i am normally oily. she matched me to sand, telling me that it ran a bit light and that in other foundations i'd probably be warm ivory. so i went home all happy dandy, and after a few days i felt like the coloring wasn't right. it seemed to orange. stupid me, i never actually went back to get rematched and buy a new one. so it sat there with me thinking "i thought bobbi brown was supposed to be really all about the yellow foundations? this is orange!"

well cut back to now, i decide after a while to give her stuff another shot. so i decide to check out her moisture rich foundation, hoping maybe it will be the answer to my woes about chanel's vitalumiere being a tad too dark for me. i decided to order it in warm ivory thinking that if sand was too dark, warm ivory might work. and it does! the color match is amazing. perfectly yellow (without looking like a sick yellow). the tone is great and i'm so pleased.

as far as the foundation itself, i'll say it's not bad, but not the best i've ever used. it doesn't moisturize me like vitalumiere does, but it goes on pretty evenly, give a nice natural finish. it can get a bit cakey if you load it on too much (totally did this by accident the first time i used it. why can't they put a damn pump on their foundations!?), but if you use a sponge or brush, you'll get a nice medium coverage. and like i said before, i can't rave enough about the match! so happy about that.

sometimes i just wish i could take my favorite things about my top 3 foundations and mix them together, then i'd have the perfect foundation. until then, my holy grail foundation search continues.

i'd say if you have normal to slightly dry skin, this foundation would be food for you, if you're looking for something to really kill those flakies and not keep making them pop back up, this might not be for you. but it's definitely not a bad foundation, i might even enjoy it more during the summer months, because it doesn't seem to make me greasy at all and will add a bit of moisture to my cheeks when they're not AS dry in the summer.

another discovery i made today, i tried chanel's vitalumiere with a sponge (the mua that matched me to it said they don't recommend it being applied this way) and i got a sheerer coverage than i do with my fingers and i found that it somehow made the color match me really great. so i'm thinking that this foundation is best for me as a sheer coverage (which i really am looking for from it anyway, i just have a habit of loading on foundation sometimes. oops.) and when it's put on sheer i get a much nicer match, very natural. so i am loving it once again after putting it down a bit because of the color.

so that's my update on the foundation hunt. if you've got any foundation recommendations, send 'em my way!

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

mac cremeblend blush so sweet, so easy

2010-02-03T12:14:00.003-05:00

favorite product in months? mac's new cremeblush in so sweet, so easy!

from mac's "mac in lillyland" collection, this was the standout product for me from the start.

i haven't kept up religiously with mac's collections for probably over a year, but i occasionally check in. i usually don't find much i like but after seeing some swatches on the net, i was drawn to the new cremeblend blushes.

i had been on a cream blush hunt for a while but came up unsatisfied as i found many of them either didn't have any staying power or felt way too sticky on my face. ick.

i didn't order this blush until i was able to feel them in person to make sure they wouldn't be the same as every other cream blush i had touched. turned out, they were fab! they're smooth but go on with an almost dry finish. HOWEVER, they don't accentuate any dry spots and they blend like a dream, so don't be afraid by the dry down.

i already knew what color i wanted to try and it turned out that so sweet, so easy was a perfect choice. they describe it as a yellow pink, which i would say is fairly accurate. along with having trouble matching foundations to my skin, i have a hard time with blushes. although i'm yellow toned, my cheeks blush a pretty fair pink. and as much as make up artists tell me that if i cancel out the pink with foundation i can wear what i want, i find that isn't so much the case. i find too many blushes also end up looking a bit too orange, so i find that the colors that look best on my are pinks, not corals. i tend to try to match my real blush color. this color looked perfect and it definitely is!

i use my fingers to blend it in and i get a beautiful natural looking pink blush. the color is actually very similar to what my skin actually blushes naturally. the lasting power is pretty fab and it just looks so natural and glowy, but i dont' get the stickiness that so many cream blushes give (i'm looking at you stila convertible color).

if you're looking for a fabulous, natural blush then try these out. obviously pick the color that would look best on you (the other colors are gorgeous, i won't lie) and you will love them!

this is all i've been wearing for blush lately, all my other blushes have been pushed aside. this blush is from a spring time geared collection, so as much as this looks fab now, it's gonna look amazing when spring time comes. i'm really looking forward to a nice fresh springtime look and this will go perfectly!

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

cover fx skin prep nourishing foundation primer & anti aging serum

2010-02-03T11:56:00.007-05:00

a few sephora purchases ago, i was browsing through the cheap items (i love typing different prices in the keyword search. i start at $1 and make my way up to $10. haha)

i discovered this cover fx primer, and having had NO luck with primers in the past, i'm not even sure what compelled me to buy it. but i guess i'm never one to give up and i thought, hey 12th time's a charm right? ;)

so it came in and i used it maybe once and kind of put it aside. then once winter really hit me and my normally oily skin started getting quite dry, i had been trying everything to moisturize my poor skin.

once i bought chanel's vitalumiere, i was so not used to it's more moist, almost oily finish. as much as i loved the finish, i sometimes found it a bit hard to blend on my skin. so i decided to give this another shot. it turned out to be fab!

the consistency feels almost oily when you first apply it, but you can also feel some silicone in it as well. it dries down silky and doesn't stay feeling oily. it's a clear yellowish color but doesn't show up as anything on your skin.

it really helped me blend my foundation and evened out the texture of my skin a bit. i sometimes even wear it alone. i can't really say that it makes my foundation last much longer than normal, but to be honest, part of me feels that claim my primers to be pretty false. [EDIT: i take that back, i wore my foundation the other day forgetting to use this and my foundation was almost gone by the end of my work shift, which is not the case when i use this stuff. so it does seem to add some lasting power]

the best thing about it? it's super moisturizing! it ended up bringing my skin up that extra notch to feeling much more moisturized. no more scaly skin under my foundation! this paired with the moisturizing vitalumiere my skin hasn't looked this moisturized in months!!

if you're having issues with dry flakies and need some extra moisturizing before your foundation, give this stuff a shot!

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

the importance of foundation matching

2010-02-03T11:44:00.003-05:00

i seem to have this skin color that is so hard to match foundation to. i have redness in my face, mostly in my cheeks BUT my undertone is yellow, quite yellow. i'm part middle eastern so i get my main undertone from my father's side but i got stuck with the redness from my mom's side.
this picture makes me look pink, but i assure you that is the lighting, i am anything but.

i find that SO many foundations are way to orange for me. i am not beige, i will never be beige! so i constantly hunt for foundations that are YELLOW. the most yellow foundation i've found is make up for ever's hd. it's wonderfully yellow. it works for the most part however #117 that i own is SLIGHTLY too pale and the finish isn't working on my dry-ish skin this winter.

never one to be happy with what i have, i buy foundations frequently, always one the search for "the one". sometimes i'll take all my foundations and squirt a little on my hand to compare it's color match to others.

i did this recently after purchasing chanel's vitalumiere. something was off a bit with the match. i couldn't figure out if it was too dark, too orange, etc.

i swatched all of them together on my chin, and look at the difference in all of these foundations. only a couple truly match me well. others i find i have to mix with others or blend well into my neck to deal with them being too dark. some of them i don't even wear because they are just too orange.

this is a constant struggle for me! i'm quite pale, many times i'm slightly too dark for the palest, but too pale for the next shade up, or in chanel's case, i'm too pale for their "palest" color.

other than my closest color match to mufe's hd, i have yet to find a foundation that was yellow enough. i am still very far away from my perfect foundation.

D&G L'IMPERATRICE

2010-02-01T19:31:00.007-05:00

i find that as much as i obsess over makeup and spend countless hours online looking for my next new cosmetic love, i fall for perfumes quick and hard. my newest love: D&G's

L'IMPERATRICE

image from sephora.com

from the first time i smelled it, i knew it had to be mine, but at 65$ a bottle, it's not something i could just pick up on a whim. but my birthday is coming up soon, so i might have to convince lovey to buy it for me ;)

it's from a line of "unisex" eau de toilettes d&g created. i haven't smelled them all, but from what i've read, some lean more towards one gender than another. this one i definitely couldn't see being worn by a man. it's a sweet, tart, clean smell and perfect for spring and summer.

i'm so in love with it! the smell is so unique to me, it's like nothing i've ever smelled before. honestly, i'm not good at describing perfumes so i definitely recommend heading over to your local perfume counter and sniffing it!! i can't wait for it to be in my hands. and i will make it happen, just as i did with mj's lola! ;)

shoes!

2010-01-27T15:05:00.005-05:00

this was me today:

i went out on a mission to find some new shoes. i ended up with 3!

i find that i buy makeup so often that i leave myself little room to buy other things that i love. like clothes and shoes! that, and sometimes when i go out, i find myself being too cheap to buy certain shoes, yet have no problem paying 25$ for a lipgloss. sometimes my logic is out of whack. haha.

i love heels, but i don't have many opportunities to wear them. i bought a few recently so i had to force myself to pick some shoes that i would love, and wear often. and did i!

i started at tj maxx and saw the most wonderful steve madden cowboy booties. it was fate. they were the only ones in my size, the last pair, and they fit!! i had to have them in my life.

then i headed over to target, gift card in hand. along with a 5$ off a 20$ shoe purchase (when does anyone ever give you coupons for shoes? never! i was ecstatic!).

target never fails me when it comes to flats. they're what i wear the majority of the time that i'm not wearing boots (or flip flops in the summer) but i have pretty wide feet and almost every pair of flats i come across are waaaay too narrow. but target always has an awesome selection every season of nice wide cute flats. so i ended up with 2 pairs! the black pair are similar to a pair i bought a couple of years ago at target and are starting to look pretty shabby now, so i was super happy to find a similar pair to replace them. and i loved these cute little purple ones and they were both so cheap! so i got both pairs all together for 25$ after my coupon!

what a wonderful shoe filled day!!

i was also trying to find some cute tops along the way, but it just wasn't in the cards today. oh well, you can't win them all! i was just super excited to find not just 1, but 3 pairs of cute new shoes!

what's in my makeup bag?

2010-01-20T13:17:00.005-05:00

i LOVE peeking what's inside of other people's makeup bags and/or purses. so i thought i'd show you guys what's inside of mine!

now, if you follow my blog then you know i'm really working on simplifying my makeup collection. after selling a lot of what i owned and separating what i use, what i sometimes use and what i never use, i had a big bin full of stuff i never touched. i gave some away, sold what i could and as much as it broke my heart, i ended up throwing the rest of it out recently as i was so sick of it just sitting there catching dust. i hate throwing things away but after i had picked out the good stuff, there was no use in keeping the rest.

so anyway, what remains of my makeup is held in 2 different things. the stuff i use the most is kept in my cute little owl makeup bag (which i bought at borders. made by paperchase. love at first sight. i'm a little obsessed with owls). the rest of my stuff that i still occasionally use or dabble in sometimes is kept in a big caboodles traincase i bought at target which i believe i've shown you all before.

this is what's in my "frequently used" makeup bag. i love keeping all my most used stuff in here as it makes it easier to trek around the house whether i want to do my makeup at my vanity, or in the bathroom (so i don't wake up lovey when i have to leave work before him :])

the contents of this bag rotate sometimes, since i'm always finding new things i love and realizing certain things i don't love as much.

i suppose i should give a list of the contents, since if it was me, i'd want to know exactly what was in someone's bag! :)

it'd be impossible to try to list this in some sort of order as i shot the picture in a more dumped out style, but if you have any questions about what a particular item is, let me know!

chanel vitalumiere foundation
lancome lipsticks in scarlet siren and pale lip
be buxom lashes mini
udpp
dior ultra gloss reflect in beige velvet
dior mascaras iconic, diorshow, diorshow blackout
ysl rouge volupte in #11 & #9
mac custom palette including shroom, satin taupe, brun, carbon
tweezerman pink tweezers
mac brushes #208 & #217
urban decay clear lip liner
bobbi brown blush in desert rose (i believe that's the name of it)
urban decay lipsticks in gash and jilted
makeup forever full cover concealer in #4
mac blot powder
dior creme de gloss in creamy burgundy
benefit dandelion
revlon matte lipstick in the red
mac blacktrack fluidline
urban decay 24/7 liner in zero
nars deep throat blush
boots 7 clear brow gel
dior high shine lipstick in backstage pink
kat von d tattoo liquid liner in trooper
benefit lipstick in nice knickers
mac tendertone (can't remember the name, it's the green one lol)
shu gold eyelash curler

ok so i think i got everything, like i said if you have any other specific questions, let me know! and if you guys have any "in my makeup bag" posts on any of your blogs, link me!

recent purchase/haul - chanel vitalumiere satin smoothing fluid makeup

2010-01-20T13:12:00.008-05:00

i returned a few things at the mall the other day and decided to browse nordstrom as i didn't find anything i needed or wanted at sephora. i ended up at the chanel counter since i'm kind of a noob when it comes to chanel cosmetics. i thought now was as good a time as any to try them out.

i've been wanting to find a more moisturizing foundation since the ones i normally wear are more suited for my warmer weather - and therefore oily - skin. i found all my foundation would look great at first but after a few hours i was flake city, no matter how much exfoliating and moisturizing i was doing.

it's too soon to do any kind of review as i've only worn it a couple of times, but so far i'm fairly pleased. the color match seems good, it seems to match me a little more naturally than some others, where i find i have to go a tad light to get something that won't turn me orange. it does seem to moisturize me better than my other foundations do.

i'll try to do a more updated review once i have a better idea of how this foundation works for me this winter.

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

newest obsession - ysl rouge volupte

2010-01-20T13:06:00.006-05:00

(L - #11 rose culte, R - #9 caress pink)

ok, so i'm sure i'm a little late to jump on the rouge volupte bandwagon, but oh well.
these lipsticks have been talked about to death by many bloggers and makeup lovers alike, so i won't go and tell you everything you already know..

my first purchase was #11 rose culte, gorgeous bright pink/magenta color. fell in love, but wanted a more wearable color to go along with it for days when i don't feel like being so bright. i ended up with #9 caress pink. very wearable bright yet muted raspberry color. flattering for many skintones.

they're soft, silky and very pigmented. honestly once you put these on your lips it's hard not to fall in love. i've love to buy more but as i now try to follow a semi-practical makeup lifestyle (haha, yeah right) it wouldn't make sense for me to buy a bunch of colors as i know i'd never get to use them all up.

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

spotlight: kat von d

2010-01-06T12:40:00.007-05:00

i've been meaning to do some haul posts, but i'm finding lately that actually having something to say about the products i've hauled seems a little more useful than just plain old pictures of what i've bought.

so a couple of recent purchases have been my first foray into kat von d's makeup.

i'll be honest and tell you that i know very little about kat von d. i know she's a tattoo artist and i know she's been on reality show or two about her tattooing. other than that, i know very little. i'm not into reality tv.

i saw her products when venturing into sephora but to be honest i stayed away for a while. i tend to find many makeup brands from celebrity personalities to be a bit gimmicky most of the time. mostly just a way to sell said person's name more to anyone who will buy it.

but they did something right with kat von d. the two products i have purchases are the ludwig palette and her tattoo liquid liner in trooper (black).

i first bought the liquid liner, having been sold by a review i read somewhere online. it turned out that the liner was everything i wanted mac's penultimate liner to be. the tip is some sort of brush, rather than mac's which seems to be a felt tip. i found mac's penultimate never held enough liner in the tip for me to be able to make a fine point when i wanted to. kat von d's liner is super black, dries quickly, doesn't smudge and you can make a variety of line widths. it's fabulous. although i'm not a huge liquid liner wearer, i think this might make me one.

her palette is also a winner. i chose the most neutral of her true romance palettes, and it's so lovely. all the colors are wearable, there is a varying degree of colors so you can do a daytime or nighttime look. i was worried the greens might be a bit too bright for me but they're super gorgeous. the payoff is superb (i should note that i always wear a primer on my lids though, so i don't know the payoff without one), the colors are rich and the shadows are super soft.

overall i'm very much in love with my two purchases. many of the products in the line are a bit bright for my taste but for those who love more neutral colors, there are a few beautiful options in the line. her lipsticks are something i might check out next. if you haven't tried anything from the line, what are you waiting for??

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

giorgio armani face fabric review

2009-12-27T21:59:00.005-05:00

image from giorgioarmanibeauty.com

armani's face fabric foundation is unlike anything i've ever worn before. it's advertised as a sheer, lightweight foundation. when you squeeze it out of the tube, it appears thick and creamy, however once you put it on, it's quite the opposite.

i went looking for a natural product that would make me look like i wasn't wearing anything and would even my skintone while letting some of my natural skin show through.

face fabric has a "micro-fil" formulation, which is pretty much a lot of silicones. now don't freak out yet. because i was always so against silicones. i hated how they felt on my oily/combo skin, and was always scared of them clogging up my pores. however, face fabric feels amazing. it almost reminds me of a mousse consistency. it goes on so silky, but doesn't make me feel oily like most silicone based products do.

face fabric is sheer, but can be built up slightly for a more medium finish. you'll still need concealer for any darker spots or blemishes, but it's perfect for a lightweight natural look and evens out skin wonderfully. i was really unsure at first as to whether i would like this because i was nervous about the silicones. i was especially afraid it would make me break out. well i can report that i have had no breakouts after using this for about 2 weeks.

lately i've been really about the natural, simple looks, especially in the morning when i'm rushing out the door for work, i just put a bit of this on with my fingers, a little bit extra something under my eyes for my dark circles, some mascara, and i look fresh, awake and bright.

the color choices don't look too extensive, but i ended up with shade #1, which when i look at it straight from the tube, looks too dark and orange, but once i put it on it blends in beautifully and doesn't oxidize (which is huge for me, so many things oxidize on me) and is in fact, just a little light, so that it evens out my skin to the lightest parts without making me look ghastly.

i'm really extremely pleased with this foundation. it's my go to foundation lately. it's such a low maintenance product but helps me look polished without looking like i'm wearing a bunch of foundation. i highly recommend it, and my only precaution would be that if you have any dry patches on your skin, make sure you exfoliate or you can get a little bit of them showing up a bit more, but i find it's that way with a lot of foundations.

it's not a cheap product but you really don't need much to cover your whole face, it spreads so easily. so a tube should last a while, and you'll be amazed at how silky smooth your face feels and looks!

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

200 followers!

2009-12-23T11:25:00.001-05:00

holy crow guys, 200 followers! thank you all so much! never thought i'd have 200 people reading my blog. seems like yesterday i reached 100!

sorry for the lack of posts, the holidays are crazy, but i've got lots of reviews/hauls/etc coming up!

fotd...sorta?

2009-12-12T01:47:00.003-05:00

can i just say how much i love urban decay's lipstick?

i am in LOVE with their lipstick in jilted. coming in second place is gash. love love love.

i wear jilted to tons of "special occasions", when i'm dressing up. it's an awesome alternative to a bright red lip. is's so moisturizing, and has awesome staying power too! i re-apply constantly, but it's mostly because i'm uber picky about having any bit of fading on my lips, but honestly, even after eating, fading is minimal compared to many lipsticks i've used.

i know some complain about the taste but it doesn't bother me. everything about their lipsticks counteracts the taste. they're such fabulous lipsticks. jilted might be the first lipstick i actually finish, pretty much in my whole life. with the exception of maybe a lipstick i had as a teenager, as it was my only lipstick. but yeah, i love it. here it is before my lovey's christmas party. on my eyes is mac: girlie, wedge, satin taupe and some carbon to line along with urban decay's 24/7 in zero.

(i cut out lovey cuz i'm not sure he wants his face all over the internet, i think facebook is enough for him) ;)

never thought it would happen...

2009-11-28T22:20:00.005-05:00

my wish came true.

after falling in love with that lucky brand bag, i scoured ebay for one at a reasonable price. i watched a bunch, and ended up bidding and winning a burgundy/maroon colored one. it's in great shape and the price i paid was so so low. not even considering it's original price, what i paid was a really good price for such a wonderful leather bag.

it just came in today and i'm so in love.

the photo makes it look more bright red/brown than it is in person, the leather is much more of a darker maroon color. it's gorgeous. the color i originally wanted was a dark brown, it was such a hippie looking color to me, i love it, but i'm really loving this one too. for the price, i would have taken it in any color really, but i'm very happy with my purchase and so excited i got it so cheap and in such good shape.

on a more beauty related note, i've been reorganizing my makeup situation. again.
i'm always doing this, i actually find that it calms me a bit. my boyfriend organizes his tools in the garage, i organize my makeup.

what i've been moving myself towards lately is a more basic approach to my collection. i really am still slimming what i own down and trying to go down to the basics. i envy those with their entire collection in one makeup bag, yet i could never do it because i love to buy it so much. so i just went through things and am keeping all my essentials in this super cute larger owl makeup bag and the rest of the less used stuff stays in my traincase.

it's not much of a change from what i had before, but i want to feel like i don't have all my stuff in a million places scattered around. although i don't travel often, i like to feel that if i need to grab everything i needed to do my makeup for the day, i could just grab my bag and a few brushes and go. so that's what i'm working on.

i'll probably have a few full reviews coming up soon as well.
as far as a mini review..

i recently purchased dior's lash essentials set. i used to use diorshow (and had also at one point owned diorshow blackout also) then branched out and tried...well, pretty much every mascara under the sun and i really wanted to try iconic after hearing so many good things and this set looked perfect for me to give diorshow another chance while trying iconic as well.

sometimes after you've gone through a bucket of other products, you go back to something you were unsure about and end up loving it all over again. don't get me wrong, i've used a few mascaras here and there that i liked, but i'm a woman who always likes to try new things so it's hard for me to stick with one product forever (with a few exceptions).

i'm sure there's a bajillion iconic, diorshow and blackout reviews so i won't bother doing a full blown report, but i'm very happy with my purchase. iconic is great. it's super lightweight so when i curl my lashes, it doesn't weigh the curl down. it even gives my lashes the slightest curl without using a curler, although i do still prefer to curl. diorshow and blackout are cult faves, especially diorshow so i'm sure pretty much everyone has tried it at least once. i'm liking them all over again, but i really am loving iconic for it's formula, hold and lightweight feel. the brush is great also. i like the brushes on iconic and diorshow, they separate and don't give me chunky lashes. blackout is good too, but it's a little easier to get chunks with that since the brush is more spaced out so it doesn't separate as well, but it's still a good mascara and very dark. great for nighttime.

so overall, i'm happy. not only did i get a full sized iconic but i got to retry little baby sizes of the other two i had once loved. it's definitely worth it for someone who's interested in trying them all. or even just iconic, since the price difference between this and the mascara alone is minor.

bags bags bags!

2009-11-23T22:41:00.004-05:00

well my beauty obsession is always burning, but lately, i'm all about bags! well, actually, it started off as a new wallet hunt, then of course, i start searching through bags and end up falling in love.

and since i can't afford an awesome lucky brand handbag to satisfy my inner hippie, i just ordered this baby from forever21. i saw the white version in store and loved it but held off to see if i could find a version in another color, and of course i did!

i've been looking for a cute crossbody bag for a while but i've also been cheap lately with how much i'll spend on things, so this was perfect!

i was originally looking for a wallet to better match my current brown bag (which i do love to bits by the way. nothing fancy but perfect for me). i was using black wallet and it just looked silly with my brown bag, but still nothing yet. i was hoping to find something colored so it could match with more than just brown, but i'm so picky with what i'm looking for. and i'm being cheap lol. oh well, black bag for now, at least most of my wallets will match it.

lucky brand stash bag

2009-11-20T23:03:00.003-05:00

i have fallen head over heels in love with this bag.

unfortunately it's a bit out of my price range...

so i guess i'll just sit and stare at it through the computer screen. that's free right?

update and a review - lancome teint idole ultra

2009-11-11T20:59:00.007-05:00

so i spoke too soon about the gm collin products. my skin just doesn't handle salicylic acid well at all, even with loads of moisturizer. my skin was constantly dry and flaky and just not pretty. i feel that the good results that i started with were more from the facial than the products i bought. i gave it a couple weeks but it's just not working for me.

i do still like the sunscreen i bought though.

my biggest mistake however, was switching right back to my old skincare routine. today i've been thinking i was having an allergic reaction to something, but the more i think about it, the more i realize that it's more than likely a reaction to the benzoyl peroxide i've started up again. i've got red bumpy areas all over my skin, some were even itchy earlier. definitely messed with my skin too much these past couple weeks. my skin was too sensitive and raw from the salicylic acid to start something else harsh, so for the next couple days i'll be sticking with a gentle cleanser and moisturizer. hopefully it will clear up soon.

image from sephora.com

anyway, i thought i'd talk about a foundation i've been using lately. it's nothing new, but i decided to give lancome's tient idole ultra a try. it's been pretty good to me so far, not sure if it's anything groundbreaking, but definitely not disappointing.

i was looking for something to replace maybelline's 24 hr super stay, which i had used for a little while and FELL IN LOVE WITH. i was amazed to find a drugstore foundation i loved so much. the coverage was buildable, and it stayed longer than any other foundation i've used. i would see almost no fading by the end of the day. and no breakouts! however i couldn't get a good color match (turned slightly orange on me quickly). so i was upset about it and wanted to find a high end replacement (i've had better luck color wise with higher end foundations). i heard about tient idole's long wear claim and thought maybe it would be exactly what i was looking for.

well, it does last a while, longer than some other foundations i've fallen in love with but didn't last well enough on my oily tzone (i'm looking at you make up for ever hd). by the end of the day i still feel like it's held up pretty well, and i've accepted i can't expect miracles with this much oil on my face after so many hours.

the coverage is nice. it's buildable, but seems it might feel a slight bit heavy if you layer it too much (maybelline's superstay was the same). the color match is really good, and there are tons of colors to choose from. however, i will say that i still find that mufe hd is the best yellow toned foundation i've found, even bobbi brown was more orangey/beige compared to mufe. really though, i can't complain about the match, i find no line of foundation around my jaw and i don't tend to look too pale or too dark with it.

overall, i'm pretty happy with my purchase. it's a good foundation for people with oily skin and gives good coverage but doesn't feel heavy.
i am a sucker for a new foundation so i can't say i've found my hg, and honestly i don't know if any i've tried are (mufe hd would be it if it lasted a little longer). but i've accepted that it might be a long road before i find my hg, and i'm ok trying lots of foundations in the meantime!

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

spa

2009-11-03T13:20:00.005-05:00

well hello again readers! so sorry for being away for so long!!

i went to a local spa last week to get a facial with my bff, and let me tell you, one of the best experiences of my life!!
i had a deep pore cleanse, it lasted a little over an hour and was everything i could have expected and more. so tranquil and amazing.

before the facial they used this amazingly expensive and fancy looking machine to take a picture of the left side of my face, then showed me any skin concerns i could have. they had a few different categories to go through. they showed me areas where oil and dirt could be surpressed under the skin, wrinkles (which i had none), any enlarged pores and blemishes, and they also showed me uneven skintone and the worst...sun damage!! ACK! i'm always the one telling people to wear sunscreen and here i am, with sun spots i didn't even realize i had! i had noticed in more recent years some freckles i had on my nose and upper cheeks but always thought it was just freckles i had developed as i got older...WRONG! they also showed me what they could look like years from now if i don't take care of them.. scary!!!

so as much as i had been wanting to get into the habit of wearing sunscreen daily, i have had a hard time finding anything that didn't make me feel like one big greaseball as soon as i put it on. well they sold me a skinceuticals sunscreen they carry there, it's spf 20 which is just enough for a daily sunscreen but not too much that i feel super greasy. i'm really loving it so far, it doesn't make me feel extra greasy.

they also sold me a skincare kit from a brand called gm collin, it appears to be something mainly sold in spas. the kit i got was mostly for acne, it has a cleanser, a toner and a gel moisturizer. it's main ingredient is salicylic acid, which i had been avoiding for a long time since the last time i tried a spot treatment with it in it, it dried me out like crazy. but now that my skin is more in check, i think this is exactly what i needed to even out my skintone and keep my acne at bay. it did dry me out in a few spots at first but i added my regular moisturizer into the mix and it's been working great for me so far.

so that's my update for now. i finally had a free minute to write a bit about what's new in my life beauty wise. if any of you have used either of these products, please share you opinions! i have found very little in regards to reviews of gm collin products.

october

2009-10-18T09:03:00.003-04:00

ack! i'm so sorry everyone, i've been completely neglecting my blog!!
october has turned out to be a pretty busy month for me. i'm not really sure why, but i'm finding i have less and less time to myself these days. i'm also socializing a bit more. it's funny, most people do the most of their socializing in the summer, i'm the opposite in a way. we have some friends who camp all summer so we don't see them much until camping season's over and we've started hanging out with a friend i made at work. along with our regular set of friends mixed in there too..so all in all, my social life is a bit busy lately. which is a great thing of course!
so i'm very sorry everyone! i definitely have plenty to blog about so i will come back with the posts very soon!

small haul

2009-09-27T18:13:00.005-04:00

well i've got a small haul for you guys. i've been lazy about posting lately, although i shouldn't be, there's so many good things to talk about.

i had a couple of things to return to sephora today so while browsing after doing the return i picked up a few things that i kind of wanted, but realized, why should i buy some makeup if i'm not feeling anything? so i thought, what have i been dying for besides makeup? MARC JACOBS LOLA!

and i bought it! it is love. i am SO in love with the bottle.

i also headed to nordstrom with a friend and i introduced her to bobbi brown, since there was a gel liner in a color that was exactly what she had been looking for (black mauve).
i had been eying bobbi brown lately, in my mission of broadening my horizons out of mac and brands sephora sells. bobbi brown is right up my alley since she's all about neutrals.

i made my first purchase. i started myself a 3 pan palette. i only bought one shadow for now (sage, which is GORGEOUS and i'm so in love with), but i definitely will be going back very soon so fill it up! i played with so many more things i would have loved to buy but just couldn't today. but i'm really loving bobbi brown!

i feel like i had been in a bit of a rut, but this little fresh interest in bobbi brown seems like it will really open things up for me, plus the MA was really helpful and very good with recommending me colors, which is really what i've been needing lately.

*disclaimer: all items have been purchased by myself, i have not received any free items or money for this review/post.

marc jacobs lola

2009-09-19T15:19:00.003-04:00

what have i been craving lately?

marc jacobs lola.

i saw it online, i was determined to head to my local perfume counter and smell it.

lo and behold. i love it.

i liked it from first smell, but wanted to give it a few chances before i decided if i loved it, as sometimes after a few hours a perfume can make you change your mind. but on 3 different occasions i went to the counter and sprayed a little card and took it with me, and on the last occasion i sprayed a little on myself. i wasn't a big fan of daisy so i wasn't sure if i'd like this, but oh i do i do i do!

now all 3 cards are floating in my purse making it smell fab (a little trick i learned a while back) and i'm definitely dying for that perfume! plus, the bottle is adorable!

shadow shields

2009-09-18T08:44:00.005-04:00

so while browsing the sephora website today, i stumbled upon these little guys:

image from sephora.com

they're little disposable adhesive shields to put on your face while you're applying eye makeup to stop fallout from falling on your cheek.

let me say, that i have not actually used this product, i'm simply ranting based on it's picture, description and price.

ok, so in theory, this is great. but, these bad boys are 16$ for 30 of them. why? probably because they're cut to the shape under you eye and they're adhesive.

however, you can do the same thing with a tissue, save yourself the 16$, and not worry about peeling it off your face when you're done. just fold up a tissue under your eye and hold it in place while you apply your shadow. and if you really want to get crafty, cut out a paper towel to the shape under your eye. sure, you don't have both hands to apply makeup in this case, but do you really need two hands to hold a brush to apply your makeup?

so bravo to sephora for trying to make things convenient for us and be innovative. it's essentially not a bad idea, but i think when it comes to certain things, there's always room to be a little thrifty. maybe if they came in a larger pack and were way less money, but come on, 16$ for something i can do with a tissue?

skincare

2009-09-16T13:17:00.005-04:00

remember how i told you how i was always worried about experimenting with skincare out of fear of breaking out and other such problems that come with using a new skincare product?

well, as much as that worries me, i'm really thinking of adding some products to my skincare routine. i don't really need a new face wash, toner, or day lotion since i use proactiv face wash and toner and clinique dramatically different moisturizing gel. i also use clinique's mild soap to remove makeup along with a sample of lancome's eye makeup remover.

buuuuut, i'm looking to add an eye cream, and any other skincare products that might help with some problems i have with my skin. i still want to see a dermatologist, but i'm also lazy, so if i can solve my issues without a doctor visit, i'd be happy.

i have a few eye cream samples so i've been expirimenting with those, although i'm not sure if i've found my hg yet, i've been liking boscia's enlivening amino ag eye treatment, it works well when my eye area gets a bit puffy. i've also heard good things about dr brandt's pores no more vacuum cleaner.

i've even heard good things about his lineless eye cream, although i don't have any wrinkles for it to work on.

i've been really into finding deluxe samples to try of some products since it's easier to find out if i love or hate it before i splurge on a full size product.

so do any of you have any hg miracle products you swear by? i'd love to hear about them!

falling back in love

2009-09-10T00:17:00.006-04:00

sorry again for the lack of posts.

anyway, i thought i'd tell you about how dior has made me fall back in love with lipgloss.

image from sephora.com

it all started with a trip to sephora a months ago, where dior's newest creme de gloss "creamy burgundy" caught my eye. i had to have it. very rarely do i fall so head over heals for something so quickly. but it was love at first sight. no research, no swatching other colors. pure love.

so i took it home and lo and behold, an even stronger love. creamy, not sticky, beautifully colored. like a liquid lipstick. what more could a girl ask for? nothing.

but i won't lie, it got pushed aside for a while, as my mac obsession kept pushing ahead at full force. well now, as we know, i've relaxed with mac and have reopened myself to other beautiful makeup brands.

mac lipglosses? ugh. so sticky. so so sticky. your hair gets stuck in your lips even without any help from a small breeze in the air.

i go through phases with makeup. i obsess over lipsticks, then it's foundation, then blush, then lipgloss (not in that order, but you get the idea). i find something new, and want a whole bunch more!

so lately, i've wanted to fall back in love with lipglosses. put the mac ones aside (don't even want to look at them, they should feel ashamed at their sticky-ness). and played around with some others i have. i fell back in love with that dior creme de gloss. i have some others i like (buxom glosses would be wonderful without the plumping feeling, doesn't hurt but i'm not a fan), but nothing compares to dior.

i'm usually not a fan of spending 25$ on a lipgloss, but i'll make an exception. when i first got into high end makeup all i wanted was dior, because i knew the name. but after a while i realized that not EVERYTHING they made was that great. i did love their glosses though. one of my first high end purchases was a dior gloss.

so then i decided to try some other glosses. the old one i had a while back looked just like the ultra reflect glosses now, but i think they were just called dior addict gloss. but i thought i'd give the ultra reflects a shot. (i bought beige velvet. i won't lie, i heard it was used on kristen stewart at the twilight premiere and i became a little biased, but i only allowed that to happen since i had a feeling it'd be a great color for me).

and guess what. i fell in love again.

the ultra reflects aren't the same consistency as the creme de glosses. they're a tad stickier and less "lipstick" feeling, but they're not overly sticky and they're so very soft.

so i find myself shunning all my other glosses. they just can't compare anymore. (i will say though, that i am loving lancome's juicy tubes for a more fun, simple gloss).

i am rarely a snob about makeup, but once you go dior, you never go back. at least i don't.

boots no 7 quick thinking 4 in 1 wipes

2009-08-27T10:29:00.003-04:00

sorry for the lack of posts. been busy with work lately. (not sure if i ever updated that i went back to an old job. the one i had before wasn't cutting it)

anyway, i was driving the other day and realized that so many times we talk about and review new things we've discovered or tried, but what about the items that are tried and true that we keep going back to?

well, i really love boots quick thinking wipes. i started trying different makeup removing wipes a while back and hadn't found any i was pleased with. a few drugstore ones had too much product on them and almost suds up and left a residue on my face. the mac ones smell great, but weren't very soft and burned my eyes.

so one day i was checking out the boots section in target and thought i'd give these a shot. well, i've stuck with them ever since. they're not cheap, but they're great! i'm on my 4th or 5th package and i'll keep buying them, unless something comes around that really proves itself better (dunno if that will ever happen though!)

here's what boots says about them:

Be good to your skin, even when you're short of time, with these gentle, fragrance free wipes. They effectively cleanse and remove impurities, tone and moisturize your skin, and even remove waterproof eye make-up - all in one easy step. With vitamin pro-B5 plus extracts of witch hazel and fennel which help cleanse pores, moisturize and leave your skin feeling smooth, clean and fresh.Created with Care. We've created this hypo-allergenic product using only ingredients we know and trust. It has been tried and tested by guests with even the most sensitive skin, so you'll know it will be good to yours. Dermatologically tested. Fragrance free.

the wipes are quite soft, they smell very pleasant and best of all, they get off tons of makeup. i don't wear waterproof mascara so i can't speak on that, but these get off just about everything else. if you're wearing a bit more on your face, it might take a couple of wipes, but they work! and when you're all done, it dries down and doesn't leave any icky residue, but also doesn't make your face feel dry and tight.

they're great when you're feeling lazy about washing your face at night (though i wouldn't make that a habit) and you don't wake up with a cluster of pimples. they're also great for just getting off that little extra bit that might not have come off around your eyes when you washed your face. that happens to me all the time.

so if you're looking for a face wipe that will make you feel fresh and not icky after you use them, try these! i love them!

urban decay ink for eyes review

2009-08-21T09:30:00.006-04:00

i've worn ink for eyes a couple times since i got it so i think it's fair to give an assessment now.

first of all, i'll be honest and tell you the first time i wore it, i wasn't sure i would end up liking it. but first let me tell you what i do like..
the packaging it unique. it's pretty long, and i do appreciate this shape because rather than going lower and lower in a little pot, it will be easier to get all the product out cleanly when this gets low. the peacock design is also super pretty and the brush is actually decent! i NEVER use applicators or brushes that come with products (only other exception being benefit's dandelion little brush). but this brush isn't bad. one end is an angled brush, the other end is a smudger. at first the angled brush was a bit thick for me, but i got the hang of it and i actually get a really nice subtle line with it, which of course you can build up. i also LOVE the smudger for smudging the liner on my bottom lashline. it looks nice and smokey rather than giving me that precise line under my eye.

the product itself is very creamy. they weren't lying when they said this. it goes on super soft and there's not tugging whatsoever. but this is where things got a little complicated my first time using this. see, i'm used to wearing mac's fluidline which claims to be smudgeproof, and it is. i think my original problem was even comparing ink for eyes with anything. i shouldn't have done that, because i expected more than it claimed to be. ink for eyes does say it will last all day but it doesn't claim to be waterproof or technically smudgeproof. it does last well over a little udpp and the color is fab (however it's so creamy that if you try to line your eyes by swiping across rather than kind of tapping it along the lash line with the angled brush, you'll end up with a bit more sheer color). when you get the technique right, the color is pretty dark black. but don't rub your eyes! because you will smear it, at least, that's what happened the first time i wore it. the second time around, i didn't touch my eyes and it stayed well, with the exception of a little fading through the hours, but not too badly. i also didn't end up with any dark lines above my eye (you know those terrible lines you get from a bad liner that smudges onto the top when your eyes are open). so it may not be smudgeproof, but it did stay in place pretty well.

so i definitely will say that now that i've worn this a couple times, i did end up liking it. i was surprised by the brush and i really love that darn smudger. i did end up liking the very soft creamy formulation. i would say the only thing i might change would be the pigmentation, i find that sometimes it can go on a bit more sheer than i'd like to see, but a little bit of extra layering solves that. i'm interested to see how differently this will be once the fall and winter months are coming. i have a feeling this product will wear even better.

overall, it's not necessarily the BEST cream eyeliner i've used, but it's good. i think my favorite part of it over my fluidline is how it looks smudged on my lower lashline.

go into this product without expecting it to be the same as something you've already worn, that was my first mistake. it's a nice product and it's worth a try, especially at the discounted friends and family price i paid for it!

small haul/upcoming reviews/upcoming blog sale

2009-08-19T14:54:00.002-04:00

i went to sephora today because i had a few items rotating in my shopping cart but wanted to see it all in person instead. i ended up with:
bare escentuals matte foundation
sephora shadow in black flame
stila convertible color in petunia

i also hit up a local tjmaxx along with target and ended up with a lancome lipstick in scarlet siren and some more of my favorite face wipes by boots (love!)

i'm due for a TON of reviews. i haven't bought so much makeup in a long time so i really want to review many of the things i've bought in these last two hauls. some will be surprising!

also, i'm going to try a blog sale soon. probably this coming week. i'm going to start off with just a few items to get a feel of how many people are actually going to be purchasing. i don't want to spend a ton of time taking pics and deciding prices if the sale is a flop. so keep an eye out for that coming soon!

urban decay friends and family haul

2009-08-14T14:03:00.004-04:00

when urban decay warns their shipping will be delayed a few days because of the large amount of sales, i don't know who that happens to, because it's never happened to me. i ordered the 10th, and got my package 2 days later. fabulous!

perversion liquid liner
zero ink for eyes
stash 24/7 pencil
sellout eyeshadow
ruthless deluxe eyeshadow

i saved about 30$ after discount. i got a lot of loot for the amount i paid.
loving everything so far. haven't gotten to test it all out yet, but expect some reviews.

i'm realizing my stash is quickly filling up with urban decay. gotta love em!

urban decay friends and family plus other lemmings

2009-08-10T22:48:00.004-04:00

urban decay friends and family. what can i say? how do i say no to 30% off? especially when i was planning on purchasing an item or two already.
the list:
24/7 liner in stash
deluxe shadow in ruthless
eyeshadow in sellout
ink for eyes in zero
liquid liner in perversion

also, other lemmings?

i got sephora's fall catalog in the mail recently. and well, coupled with the fact that i have a VIB 10% off coupon..i'm eyeing a few things. no purchase made yet, but....

sephora's newly revised eyeshadows are looking fab. i'm really feeling simple shades lately for a wash of color, which is what i do most often nowadays. they have a few neutrals i'm eyeing.

in the fall catalog: bare escentuals big and healthy lip stick. loving it. looks so fab. gotta check it out in store.

thinking i might have to take a small trip up to my local sephora...

long time no see

2009-08-09T21:48:00.002-04:00

sorry i've been away!

not much to write about at the moment.

i did purchase a concealer at the drugstore today that seems like a bit of a competitor for mufe's full cover. it's maybelline's super stay concealer (i think that's the name). it's pretty nice. i haven't worn it all day yet, but it claims to stay on for 24 hours with no transfer. i put it on one eye and it covered my circle nicely and dried quickly and was not cakey at all. very natural looking.

other than that, i'm on the market for a new blush. of all the ones i have, my favorites are all fall/winter shades...i want something nice for the rest of the summer. most of what i have is too pink or too orange.

i went to marshalls for the first time yesterday and scored a nice lancome eyeshadow quad. it's hard to get makeup at marshalls because unless you catch it when it first gets there, you're stuck with all messed up tested and touched stuff. but i got lucky and found a few gems. i stuck with just the quad though. didn't wanna go broke. the quad i got is called safari escapade. from summer 09 color design tropiques collection. i love getting high end makeup on a discount.

that's all for now. hopefully more to write about soon!

the concealer search continues...

2009-07-29T13:12:00.004-04:00

so erase paste went back. the #2 that i bought seemed to be a bit too dark still, it covered the color fairly well but it left my under eye still dark. so i went in thinking i'd grab the #1, and i tried it on, and it looked much better, but i was still frustrated. i felt like it didn't cover the color completely and layer after layer, just makes it cake even more.
as much as the color matches were great, i feel that this might only work for people who only need a thin layer. when you need to really put it on, it just gravitates toward the lines under my eyes. so i don't think it's necessarily a bad concealer, it just didn't end up working for my needs.

well i ended up being told to try make up for ever's full cover concealer. now i don't think this was even really intended for under eye, but it's nice. the one i got did end up being a bit yellow toned, but not nearly as much as say, mac's, is. and so far, the match seems great and it doesn't crease like crazy as benefit's did.

so it continues..hopefully i've found the right one in mufe.

how do YOU organize your stash?

2009-07-27T14:05:00.005-04:00

whether your stash is big, small, or just right, how do you store your makeup?
do you keep it in a makeup bag? a traincase? both? do you have plastic drawers, storage in your bathroom?

i wanna know! where do you keep your makeup?

i just took a large makeup bag i got free from clinique a while ago and took all the stuff i use very regularly and put it in there, and left everything else in my traincase. i figured it would make things even easier -- and even more portable -- than keeping it all in the traincase.

applying red lipstick

2009-07-26T14:16:00.007-04:00

so in my newest obsession with red lips, i have found that i'm yet to be bold enough to wear a siren red outside of the house. berry reds, i'm more comfortable in, but we all know that the classic red lipstick takes confidence.

but i've found a way to ease myself into wearing red lipstick.

when you apply red lipstick straight from the tube, you get a precise line around your lips, defining the shape and giving that classic look. but i find that i'm not yet 100% comfortable going out this way, i feel my lips look huge this way, and although i'm sure many would say it looks fab, i'm still not confident enough for it.

so i've found that instead, i apply the red with my finger, it blends naturally with my lip line, rather than creating that defined line. and makes it looks more like a stain. the color is almost just as bright, but has just a tad of transparency (or the appearance of transparancy) and so i feel this is how red lipstick looks more natural on me. it's still buildable to a 100% bright red, but it gives the line around the lip a more natural look so that it doesn't look so precise and harsh.

(russian red)

and applying it this way, i'm 100% comfortable walking out of the house! in fact, i feel hot! and i also feel like it gives the lipstick less of a tendency to smudge, which i'm always checking for when i wear a full bright lip color (which isn't often). and it even seems to make the color last longer (especially with a matte lip).

just thought i'd share my tip! just take some lipstick on your finger, and start in the middle of the lip and just dab and blend outward!

laura mercier eye liner

2009-07-23T12:51:00.003-04:00

my love for laura mercier has grown a lot these past few weeks. i had heard great things about her products in the past. i knew she had one of the best tinted moisturizers. but i also knew that many of her products are pretty expensive, and sometimes it's hard to splurge on a brand you've never used before. but i'm loving the simplicity of her products. simple sophisticated makeup is what i've been crazy for lately.

well, a couple weeks ago i went to sephora to exchange something (i know, i'm always exchanging stuff lately! but it's my mission to stop keeping things that don't work for me). i wanted to find a liner that was something besides black. a color that would give me that pop without being over the top or unnatural. i thought a deep dark blue would do the trick for my brown eyes. so i grabbed marine bleu.

i knew i wanted some type of liner to apply with a brush. i didn't want a pencil. i did some searching online and saw laura mercier's liner. it's just called "eye liner" but us makeup lovers on the internet have dubbed it a "cake liner". it's a dry liner. it reminds me of the watercolors we'd use as kids where when you added water, the color would release onto your brush.

i first tried it with a pointed liner brush. total disaster. then i gave in and used an angle brush. i spray my brush with a little water and dab it on the pan. i then kind of dab and push it along my lashline to apply.

the color is fab. it's exactly what i was looking for. the consistency is awesome. if you wet your brush just enough, you get a wonderful pigmentation. you can also add more water to make it lighter and more subtle. it's definitely buildable and the staying power is awesome.

it gives me that more natural lined look. makes the lashline look thicker without being overly dark. i've been loving it so much, i've hardly touched my mac blacktrack lately.

laura mercier lip stain

2009-07-23T12:34:00.004-04:00

in my mission to find the perfect red lip, i went to sephora yesterday to exchange something, and one of the ladies there recommended me laura mercier's lip stain in scarlet. she said it was her favorite red lipstick.

now, this lip stain is something in it's own. it's called a lip stain, but in reality it's not. it looks like a stain and last longer than a lipstick, bu does not actually stain my lips.

this bothers many women who have tried this, hoping for a lip stain, however i had heard of the product before it was recommended to me and knew it was not a true stain, so i was not disappointed. in fact, i'm pretty much in love.

this comes in a little jar like a balm. it has the consistency of a lipstick/balm hybrid. if you put just a little on, it dries to a matte on your lips, looks just like a stain, and feels almost like a stain.

so put a little bit on if you want the appearance of a stain, and actually, it looks 10x better than any stain i've tried. it applies easier, smoother, and doesn't collect in any dry spots i may have on my lips no matter how much i exfoliate and moisturize.

then, if you want a more intense lipstick look, layer this on. it looks just like a lipstick. it's less matte than when you lightly layer it on, so it appears and feels more lipstick-like. the color is also very opaque and intense. this is not a hydrating product, however.

it's so gorgeous either way. as a "stain" look, i get the appearance of having drank kool-aid all day, or having eaten a red popsicle. as a "lipstick" look, i am reminded of the 1940s.
it's got great versatility, something you could use for day and evening.

as far as how it fades, as i said, it's not a stain, so it does not have the staying power of a stain (however, i say this, but have not found a lipstain that stayed any better than a lipstick for me, but i could just have bad luck. or crappy lips). however, because of how it dries down when wearing it as a "stain" it lasts quite some time. i'd say longer than a lipstick. it lasts through a few lip lickings and drinking. but when i eat, it does start to fade to the dreaded ring around the lips.

that said, i will be experimenting with different application techniques to see if i can get this to last even longer. also, as i wear this, my lips aren't super moisturized. so i think if i had reasonably moisturized lips, it would fade more evenly.

but like i said, i went into this product not expecting a stain, but more expecting a gorgeous red lipstick, so i am really pleased with this product. it's only been a day, and i knew it was a bit premature to review, but i really love it. i think i've finally found something that i have the guts to wear out of the house.

benefit erase paste

2009-07-23T12:25:00.003-04:00

so i've been using benefit's erase paste in shade no. 2 for a little while now so i figured i could give a fairly accurate review on it.

when i was looking for concealers i honestly did not think erase paste would be the one for me when i looked at it. the color didn't look like anything that would match my skintone or hide my reddish purple dark circles.

well as i mentioned, the lady at sephora put it on me and i was pleasantly surprised.

the colors matches better than any pink or yellow i've tried in the past. the coverage is pretty strong so just a tiny bit make a huge difference.

i don't use the little scooper as i know most people who have bought this don't. i've tried to a few times but i end up with way more than i need. so i just take a little with my finger then put it on the top of my hand and then take when i need from there, like a palette. i use my ring finger and dab it on, don't rub or swipe!, until it's all blended.

my only issue i'm having is that i find that with just a small amount, i definitely get good coverage, but not enough for what i'm looking for, i still feel like i can see a bit of purple through it. when i compare both eyes i can definitely see a difference and my eyes look brighter, but if i try to put it on thicker, it ends up creasing too much in the little lines under my eye.

also, i usually set my concealer with something since this concealer looks fairly wet when applied, and what i'm using lately is mac's blot powder but i find that it might be too thick to be setting this concealer with because i notice it cakes up easily this way and doesn't look smooth and natural. that's not necessarily the fault of the concealer though.

overall, this is the most pleased i've been with a concealer in a LONG time. i don't know if it's the best, but it's the best i've used, and i've tried many. my eyes look brighter, it matches my skin nicely and looks surprisingly natural considering how thick it is.

the perfect red lipstick

2009-07-22T16:59:00.005-04:00

is there such a thing? the perfect red lip? is it all an illusion?

they say you have to find the right one for your skin type.

for me, i find that more than anything, i have to get over the initial boldness and shock of a bright red. i also find that because i have large lips i fear i will have the "clown" look with bright red smackers. they say that people with smaller lips should avoid bright or dark reds and that they're best for those will fuller lips, but for me, i worry my lips could be too full.

for some reason i see so many people - pale and dark - rocking red lips everyday, completely natural to them. but when i put some on, i feel like i stand out so much. i think i need to get used to it.

so it's been my mission lately to get myself the perfect red lipstick, and get comfortable with it!

do you wear a red lip often? maybe just for special occasions? have you found your perfect red lip?

updated collection

2009-07-21T09:26:00.004-04:00

so i know it hasn't been long since i posted my large collection along with some info on how i organized.

well you all read shortly after about my change of heart about the large amount of product i'd amassed over the past year or so.

i did a major clean up and you'll be amazing with the results. almost all of it fits into a silver caboodles traincase i bought at target.

here's my vanity now, a bit less cluttered, but not much different (like my little fake moustache on my mirror? a friend and i had a blast messing around with those a couple weeks ago. we're dorks.)
oh, and my kitty loves sitting on my ugly vanity stool.

and here's the inside of the traincase. it was amazing how much i realized how much i was holding on to and not using! i was keeping things and finding that i forced myself to use things just because i had them. not that i want to get stuck in a rut/routine, i have plenty of variety, and trust me, i haven't stopped buying (lol). but now i try to buy what works for me, and if something really doesn't work out, i return/exchange it.
i really wish i had held close to returning things that didn't work for me before. i would have accumulated a lot less stuff, and saved myself a lot of selling/swapping hassle.

and this is a big clinique makeup bag i have filled with some odds and ends that i don't have the heart to sell yet, or know they won't sell for anything (drugstore mostly).

so that's it. i have a plastic bin and a victoria's secret bag full of mac and other brands that i'm slowly selling off. i'd have a blog sale but i don't know how successful it would be..

i'll tell ya, i'm loving my smaller collection. once you realize what you like and don't like, it feels good to be done with things that sit around and don't work for you at all.

urban decay fall 09

2009-07-17T17:17:00.003-04:00

i'll admit, that my obsession for mac has calmed down. i still love mac, some of their products are great. but i'll tell ya, i haven't been obsessively keeping up with every collection that comes out like i used to.

but what i have been crazy for lately (and really, it's nothing new) is urban decay. i've loved them for years, but man, they've been coming out with some fab products lately. they keep me coming back.

well they've got a whole lot of good stuff out for fall. they've got 3 new deluxe shadows, 3 new lipstick shades, new lipliner colors, a new type of eyeliner called ink for eyes, and a ton of primers (lip, lash, and 2 kinds for face.).

i just ordered myself naked lipstick because i HAD to have it. i would have loved to order some of their ink for eyes, but i'm going to hold off till i have more money and can really afford to do some damage ;)

what are you looking forward to from urban decay's new items?

curling lashes

2009-07-16T14:30:00.004-04:00

you don't know how many youtube videos i've seen where people are doing tutorials and then i see them curl their lashes. and what do they do? they take the curler and clamp them on the lash close to the lash line, and just keep crimping there! all they're gonna end up with is 90 degree angled lashes!

i myself was never one to use a lash curler in the past, but now that i've gotten my shu curler, i've found myself a bit addicted to curling my lashes. i used to think my lashes were curly enough, but they're really not, if i don't curl them now i find that once i put on mascara, my lashes stick out much too straight.

when i started curling i wanted to figure out the best way to get nice curly natural looking lashes. i found a great tutorial by koren (enkoremakeup) that explains it all very very well..

enkore has so many great videos, if you haven't checked him out already, he'll teach you so much about a lot of basics that people struggle with.

small haul

2009-07-13T13:29:00.005-04:00

well my friends, it's been a long time since i've hauled. i've bought a few items here and there, but very little to write home about.

well i stopped by sephora today, i was on a mission to find a very dark blue eyeliner. i wanted a change from the usual black or brown, but i'm not big on bright colored liners (on myself, anyway) but i thought a nice dark dark blue might look natural enough with just a hint of color.

it ended up being a successful trip.

i picked up laura mercier's liner in bleu marine. this is what some refer to as a cake liner. it's a hard dry pan, almost like an eyeshadow but not soft enough that you could swipe it with a dry finger and get anything off. but when you wet your brush, that's when the magic happens.
this is exactly what i was searching for. it's a very very dark blue and it's buildable. i haven't worn it around yet, so i'll have to update. but so far, so good.

i also ended up rummaging around the concealers since i have yet to find a concealer i was satisified with. i won't even try listing all the concealers i've tried. it would be endless. from high to low end, i've tried soo many.

well i finally decided to just ask for some help. over at mac they try to tell me i need a pink toned concealer so any blue veining doesn't turn green. well mac artists, my undereye circles are pinky red! not blue, thanks! pink toned concealers just make them look greyish and more pink. horrible.

so i thought, well, yellow will probably help counteract the red...so i've been experimenting with so many different yellow toned concealers. they all never seemed to give me the right color. they all made my undereye circles look worse to me. and seemed to make them look more purple. i tried more neutral tones, most were either too light or too dark and looked too orange..

i couldn't win.

well, the lady at sephora asked me if i had tried benefit's erase paste. i had looked at it briefly, but it looked really pink to me so i steered clear. she said it's more of a peachy pink and will brighten under my eyes better, she said yellow gives me even more or a shadow under there since i'm so fair. well she tried it on me, both in shade 1 and 2, and they both looked really good. 1 was a bit lighter, more brightening and 2 matched my skin.

then she told me if i was going to be going light on the foundation this summer, i'd be better matching my skintone. so i picked #2. it feels very wet going on, not runny, almost sticky. but even after wearing it around without having it set with powder, it didn't crease into the little lines under my eyes. this is a rarity. i still think i'll prefer to set it with powder because it feels a little moist without. hard to describe but i guess since it's such a thick formula, it needs to be a bit sticky i suppose. it's nothing uncomfortable and hardly noticable, mostly just when you touch your skin you can feel it.

another one i'll have to wear around for a bit, but once again, so far so good!

i also have a ton of beauty insider points. i save them if i see nothing i like, but this time they had a sampe of laura mercier's illuminating tinted moisturizer. i'm interested in seeing how this goes.

and just for fun, a cute wristlet i picked up at target on clearance. i saw it on a picture on the wall where they have model shots of their clothes and stuff and i fell in love, and ended up finding it on the clearance rack. it was meant to be.

celebrity makeup

2009-07-08T21:30:00.005-04:00

so we all go to celebrities to copy their makeup. we love to recreate red carpet looks.
has anyone else really looked at some high quality pics of celebrity makeup?

see, i'm one of those people that hates it when a magazine shows a look on a celebrity on the cover and then tries to sell me some crap about using certain products to get the look. when we all know that they didn't really use those products and they've just got some endorsement from that brand to push their product. well i'm not ok with that. half the time what they recommend isn't anywhere near similar to the real thing!

i love to look at celeb makeup and figure out what kind of stuff they used. not so much the brand, but what kind of colors, finishes, etc.

i've been realizing that a good portion of makeup used on celebs is fairly natural and neutral. of course there's the occasional bright red lips, dramatic smokey eye, or shimmery eyeshadow. but i find a good portion of makeup that i see in stores, is nothing like what we see in the celebrity makeup trend. that's not to say there's anything wrong with it, we all have different tastes of course..

i look at a lot of hq pics and i see subtle shimmers, neutral browns, golds, etc.
(but of course, who doesn't also love the smokey eye? another red carpet favorite.)

now, i'm open to lots of kinds of makeup, i don't judge those who like to wear bright green and blue eyeshadow. more power to ya! and i know that a lot of the stuff sold in stores is made to appeal to many different types of makeup lovers. but i personally, just love how natural these artists make these celebrities look on the red carpet and in movies.

(can you tell i'm loving kristen stewart lately?)

that's not to say i don't like to have fun, i've done my fair share of bright looks. but i admire the looks on many celebs and i find that, well, if these professional makeup artists are showing me that natural and subtle beauty is in, then i'm all for it!

well anyway, that's just something i've been noticing. i'm really digging the natural look lately. and the smokey eye is great for a night out. i'm crazy over celebrity makeup styles. i wish i could sit down with a famous makeup artist and just have them tell me what their dos and don'ts of makeup are.

100

2009-07-02T15:39:00.003-04:00

wow, 100 followers. thanks so much to each and every one of you. i'm so grateful that there are so many of you who read and are interested in the things i have to say. i never thought that when i started this i'd even have 10 followers.
so thank you all very very much!!

flawless skin

2009-06-29T19:19:00.010-04:00

so my mission for flawless skin has begun.

i don't have serious acne issues, ever since i started on yaz and found proactiv. but i've been slacking on continually using proactiv, so sometimes i get breakouts and they stress me out so bad.

i can get really lazy about certain things when it comes to skincare..

my first mission is to get rid of, and keep away, as much acne as i can. next, i need to exfoliate regularly (a couple times a week), which i'm pretty good about anyway, so i just have to keep doing this.

so now i've been reading around, really looking to get my skin as flawless as possible. i have some redness on my cheeks and nose. it's not rosacea (my bff who also happens to be a nurse, convinced me of this), but it really bothers me because i'm yellow toned so having that redness really makes my skin look uneven. i also have blackheads on my nose and chin.

i also want to find something that will help get rid of the dark spots that get left behind after acne. i don't get pits or anything, just dark greyish spots that stick around after a breakout, especially around my mouth, which definitely don't help with evening out my skin.
i really don't know if there's a product out there that will truly help with that..i'll have to look into it.

i need to pledge to drink more water. we all know it's the best for our skin. and i also need to keep using my new sunscreen that i bought. especially now that it's getting sunnier out.

if you guys have any suggestions for products that will help me achieve flawless skin, let me know!

i'm back

2009-06-29T17:01:00.005-04:00

well, it ended up being a shorter hiatus than i planned.
it stemmed from some thinking about my large amount of makeup i've amassed over my 2 year makeup obsession, and how i wanted to rid myself of a lot of it. i felt like i was being weighed down by my ridiculous amount of products i hardly used. i wanted to have it all in a small enough amount that i could carry it to the bathroom if i wanted.
i feel like many makeup obsessers go through these phases. especially mac lovers. i always loved makeup but i got really into it for a couple of years, buying and swapping so much of it.
but i've finally calmed down about it. learned what i like and what i don't. and i've realized that a good portion of products i owned, were things i didn't need. so why hold on to it all? i bought so many things these past couple of years because i thought they were pretty, but without thinking if i'd actually use them in my daily routine.
so now, i've gone through it all, and plan to sell a good portion of it. what i'm keeping, i now keep in a caboodles traincase i bought at target. i love it, and i love having a smaller amount of makeup.
part of me doesn't want to be so obsessed with buying makeup. i'll always love it, and i'll never stop buying, but i'm glad to be done with the feelings like i have to buy the latest and greatest, even if it's not for me. part of me just feels lame for letting myself get so crazy into it and buying just to buy. i missed my smaller, well loved collection. i've said it in the past. and now i finally have it.
i'll post new pics of my traincase. it will be nothing like my recent post with all my makeup in my plastic drawers.
so now, my focus is a lot smaller. i buy what i'll use, and return what doesn't work for me.
now, my mission lately has been flawless skin. i want to be able to walk around without foundation (or as little as possible), and feel good about my skin.

hiatus

2009-06-20T15:41:00.001-04:00

i think i will be taking a bit of a hiatus....i've been feeling like i've run out of things to say, especially since i don't buy as much as i used to. and i'm going through a serious contemplation of selling off a good portion of my makeup...so, for now, i'm on a short break :)

hair

2009-06-17T20:27:00.003-04:00

ok so i had my straight bangs trimmed to side bangs since they were growing long
sorry for the crappy pic, took it quick to show you all.

buuuuuuuut...

i think i'm done with bangs for a while. i'm too low maintenance for them...and i'm so envying kristen stewart's hair. she's got such a great casual low key look which i'm sure takes hours to get that way (lol) but my hair has a natural wave to it and how her hair is, is basically how i usually like my hair. layers, some wave, very casual but nice.

so i think the bangs will be growing out and i'll be doing something more like this

now i just have to get some tips on getting my hair to have volume like that.

stash / organizing ideas

2009-06-17T14:40:00.007-04:00

this post is in no way intended to be bragging. just a way to show how i organize it. my stash is forever changing and i'm always adding and taking out things, just recently i went through and picked out a TON of things to sell to slim my stash down.
so as i'm always adding and subtracting things, i'm also always finding new ways to organize everything. here are some pictures to show you how i've got everything set up.

(please excuse my ugly vanity stool ;})
brushes in their sephora inspired holders. along with some regularly used things like a couple foundations, some other brushes, moisturizer, sunscreen, wipes, etc. lipsticks are in their acrylic holders. i recently had a smaller 3 drawer blue plastic bin on top of this bigger white one with all my lip stuff in it, but i managed to figure out a way to minimize enough to put it in a draw in the white one.

powders, foundations, blushes, and my mac palettes.

single eyeshaws, and all other shadow palettes.

eyeliners, mascara, concealer, shadesticks and some miscellaneous eye products.

the rest of my lip products.

miscellaneous items. makeup sponges, samples, lashes, makeup removers, items for mac's b2m

this is also all of my body products. perfumes, body sprays, lotions, samples, etc. other than the nice little vanity tray for the perfumes, i'm not super satisfied with how this all set up but i don't have any better ideas at the moment.

this is by no means what i think is necessarily the best way to set things up, this is just how i found things to work for me. if you have any better ideas, i'd love to hear them!

here's some lists/links for a few of the products i've found to be great for organizing.

+lipstick holder: http://www.organize.com/lior.html
+the little white bins in all the drawers were bought at walmart, i couldn't find a link on their site
+glass containers and filler for brushes are from michaels. filler for vases is little plastic fill in the flower/vase section. a link to them on another site: http://www.qualitysilkplants.com/mc60100.html

third time's a charm - haul

2009-06-17T14:34:00.003-04:00

so after returning the harajuku gwen set, this was my final attempt at purchasing some things with my gift card.
i got the shiseido body/face protection lotion. i really like this, it's very lightweight and mattifying. and i feel better knowing i'm wearing sunscreen everyday to protect myself. it took me a while to decide between this and the face cream sunscreen, but i decided to go with this after reading that this would be a better choice for my oily skin. i will say however, that i have a sample of the cream that i tried a couple times before the lotion came in the mail and i didn't notice it to be very oily on me. i guess since it's thicker some people have issues with it on oily skin but i liked it, i might even end up purchasing it some day down the line.
i also got a tarte lock and roll in sandstone. i wasn't sure if i was going to like this color once i saw it in person. it's very nude. the cream part is almost matte and so when i put it on you can hardly see it, but once the loose shadow goes over it, it's a really pretty nude/neutral color. perfect for when you just want a hint of something on your eyes but nothing overboard. great for the office.
i also got a deluxe sample of make up for ever's hd primer. i had the green one but recently sold it as the green wasn't doing much to even out my red areas. but it was a free sample and i figured it might be worth it to try the regular clear one. i haven't used it yet but i'll report back.
so that's it, everything seems to be working out so i finally successfully found some things with my gift card. now, i'm wishing i had some real money so i could take advantage of mac's sumo sale. oh well, such is life. ;)

oily skin

2009-06-14T22:11:00.003-04:00

i have a love/hate relationship with my oily skin. well, i guess you could call it combination as my cheeks are not oily, but everything else is. lol.

i appreciate the fact that (as my dad tells me) i won't get as many wrinkles when i'm older because of it. and after having issues with dryness on certain parts of my face, i can tell you with honesty that, at least from my perspective, i'd much rather be stuck with some oil then with persistently dry skin. but that's just my opinion.

but, as much as i appreciate some of the long term affects of my oily skin, i don't like the fact that my chin gets oily after about an hour or two after washing. i also don't like the fact that i have a hard time keeping makeup on my face because of it. and of course, the blackheads suck.

but i'm fortunate that now that i've gotten past my early 20s crazy pimple stage (does everyone go through that? because it sucked), my skin is fairly clear. my oily skin doesn't cause me much acne problems (aside from the blackheads) and it's not overly sensitive so if i sleep a night in my makeup out of laziness (bad, i know), i don't wake up with 4 new pimples.

i'm learning not to freak out over my oily skin. the worst thing i can do is to strip it of oil. this only makes things worse. i think a lot of people with oily skin try so hard to get rid of the oily, they go overboard, making it worse. i have actually grown a fear of trying too many "oil reducing" products out of fear that they'll do more harm than good. i'm not so much scared of topical makeup type products that will cut down on the oil as much as i am about facial cleansers and such that claim to reduce oil. only because i fear that they'll strip my skin too much of oil, leaving me with dry skin. and we don't want that now do we? i'll take a few blackheads over future wrinkles. but some of that is probably pure irrationality on my part.

all in all, i'm learning to accept what was given to me. for a while i had major issues with dry patches, pimples, etc about a year ago and i was miserable. now that my skin is leveled out, i'll take the oil. as much as it's a pain, i know it could be worse. and in truth, all the cleansers and creams will never stop it, it's just in my genes. so i'm gonna stop stressing so much about it and just do what i can to work with dealing with it on a rational level.

ch-ch-ch-changes

2009-06-11T14:54:00.003-04:00

so for us makeup lovers out there, do you ever find it fun to look back at yourself 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, a year, 2 years ago and see how your taste in makeup has changed? whether it be your application has changed/improved or your taste in colors has changed, even what type of brands you like. i sometimes find that a product i loved a few months ago, just doesn't do it for me anymore, usually because i find something even better.

i find i'm always going through phases. i've only been a hardcore makeup lover for a little over a year (not counting my long love for drugstore makeup, but in truth, back then i knew nothing about makeup, applying it or even what color foundation was right for me), but i find that just in that year my taste and skills have changed so much.

i found a better way to apply my eyeliner (that works best with my eye shape), my taste in eyeshadow colors is always changing, and i go through obsessions of different products and brands. when i first first started loving makeup, i think it was when i took my first trip to sephora with a friend. and because it was all high end and i knew nothing about the brands, i was instantly drawn to dior, since i knew the name. i dabbled with sephora for a while then but but still knew very little about makeup. even then my makeup obsession wasn't full blown. last year (i don't even remember what started it, really) it was mac. i was OBSESSED with mac. i hauled it like crazy, i practically dreamt about it! i now own a lot of mac and i do love it, but i find myself venturing elsewhere, trying new things..

a little bit of urban decay, clinique, benefit, etc.. now i've been venturing over to shiseido. haven't tried any makeup yet but someday i will when i can afford it.
my makeup buying has been slim lately out of lack of money, but it doesn't stop me from obsessing!

well anyway, that went a little off course. but like i said, i think it's fun to see where we are taste wise, even not just with makeup but everything else too. when i had my mac obsession last year, i snubbed my nose for a while at drugstore makeup, but now i'm realizing that there's no need to be brand (or price) specific. if a product works, it works.

man, i love to ramble lately, huh?

now..if only i could figure out what else to buy with this sephora store credit i have...

sunscreen

2009-06-10T15:51:00.005-04:00

im ashamed to admit that i've never been one to worry about sunscreen on a daily basis.
the only time i ever applied it was when i knew i'd be out in the sun (in the summer) for a prolonged period of time.
but i'm thinking it's time that i stop taking advantage of my skin. i was blessed with fairly decent genes from my dad's side, and judging by all of his relatives, my wrinkle problem when i get older will be minimal. i don't go tanning and i try to avoid getting sunburnt when i'm outside in the sun. but i'm realizing more and more that just because the sun isn't blaring it's shiny self outside, doesn't mean my skin isn't getting damaged by it's rays.
i read around, and have some sunscreens in mind to start trying, until i find the best one for me. with my oily skin i'm looking for something that i won't feel, and will work well under my makeup.

i have a neutrogena ultra sheer dry touch sunblock i bought last year, but i haven't really tried it under makeup yet, so i think i'll start with that one.

i've also heard great things about shiseido's ultimate sun protection lotion. i've even heard it works better than most primers to mattify the skin. which is a big thing for me as i've been looking really hard for something to reduce my oilies.

anyone else have any recommendations?

mac sumo sale

2009-06-08T17:08:00.003-04:00

so mac is having a sumo sale!!
june 16-18 all online purchases are 25% off! so exciting!!
what will you all be purchasing??

i'll finally be dipping my feet back into mac after a hiatus. i haven't been buying much mac these past months. i've mostly been exploring other brands. i did buy a couple dazzleglasses and some things from rose romance but i think other than that i hadn't hauled mac since hello kitty.
which may still seem like a reasonable amount, but last year i bought from almost every collection! now i'm being more picky, realizing i don't need something every time just because they put out a collection.
a few things from the honey collection seem cool and i liked the lustre drops from style warriors. so i guess we'll see!

harajuku lovers / victoria's secret

2009-06-04T11:42:00.004-04:00

well i'm having some buyers remorse about the harajuku set i bought. i haven't even received it yet but i went to victoria's secret yesterday and discovered they have 3 new beauty rush scents. called "pool party" all three are awesome summer scents: lemon, iced tea, and you guessed it...coconut.
i'm thinking i might end up getting that sephora store credit back for another day and just buy this spray and save the sephora card for something down the line that i really truly am dying for.

++update++

well i went for it and got the victoria's secret coolada scent. it's more of a pina colada scent, but heavy on the coconut, and for the price, it's great. it smells so fab and i kind of like it more than the harajuku set since it has less of a "perfume" smell which is great and light for summer. i kind of want to go back and get the lemon scented one.
fortunately i was able to decide on all of this without having to open the harajuku set (i haven't even gotten it in the mail, i have a sample which is what i'd been testing it by) and so i won't feel so bad returning it since they can stick it right back on the shelves and i'll walk away with my store credit to buy something else sometime.
all is well, and yay for summer!

simplicity

2009-06-02T20:31:00.004-04:00

so going along the theme of simplicity that i've been feeling lately, i've been going through my makeup and selling a lot of it that i don't use. i love makeup, i truly do, but sometimes i just get this urge to slim down my collection. sometimes i miss the days when it all fit in one little makeup bag, and it was all well loved. but i've grown too attached to much of it to just get rid of it all. so i just satisfy myself with slimming it down a bit. looking at it all the figuring out what i haven't touched in months. and i always feel better. plus, i feel a little less guilty about buying something new because i know i've sold a bit to make up for it. lol. i wish i could just put makeup on rotation, like if there was an easier way to do something with all the makeup that doesn't work out for me. swapping is too much of a hassle and i avoid sales until i have a ton of stuff to sell because they're a pain too. lol. i don't know enough people who are into makeup like i am either, or else i'd give it away.

i've also been really enjoying exploring the drugstore makeup isles. finding little gems here and there. and granted, there's a lot of junk to sift through before you really find a good product, but they're there. and maybe it has to do with the theme of simplicity, thinking of the days when that was all i purchased. i mean, it is easily accessable. especially for me since my nearest nordstrom and sephora are about 25 minutes away. the closest high end i have here is a small macys which has the usual clinique, estee lauder, clarins, lancome, etc. and not that that's a bad thing, in fact, i probably should explore those more too. sometimes i think i exclude myself from so many good things.

anyway, that was a bit rambly. just wanted to share some thoughts i've had lately.

harajuku lovers

2009-05-31T16:18:00.006-04:00

so with 46$ in sephora store credit in hand, i have purchased this lovely set online and paid a whopping 6$ (after tax) out of pocket for it. it comes with a 1oz bottle and a cute little solid perfume too. the 1oz bottle alone is sold for 45$ dollars, so it seems worth it to spend the extra 5$ and get the cute little solid to carry around with you!
i'm super excited. i wasn't extremely crazy about any of the harajuku lovers perfumes at first, but after using samples of all of them a couple of times, i've fallen for 'g'. which smells wonderfully of coconuts. it reminds me of summer, beaches and suntan lotions.
can't wait til it comes in!

haven't failed project 5 pan yet!

2009-05-26T18:56:00.000-04:00

ok i've blogged a ton the past couple days but one little thing, i guess i'm not failing so badly after all. trying to use up what i have, i ended up finishing up my ysl touch eclat today. yay! one more product put to good use!

scent of the summer - orange

2009-05-26T16:36:00.004-04:00

i've fallen in love with the scent of oranges. i've always liked the smell, but for some reason this season, i'm nuts for it. it began with a sastuma bath set i bought at the body shop. then i bought an orange scented oil diffuser...

oranges, tangerines, satsuma, mandarin, clemintine.... i love it all! (and it helps that i love to eat them too!)

now, i want a body spray or perfume that will smell exactly like my satsuma body lotion. i don't want some perfumey scent with a little orange thrown in. i want a juicy, citrusy, yummy orange scent. i want to walk around and smell just like an orange.

i am determined to find the perfect one! any suggestions?

fotd with tarte eyequatic

2009-05-26T15:26:00.004-04:00

i did a really simple look using the teal color on my lid and a bit of the powder parte of the gold color on my brow bone. and i wore the scarf! also used the mascara, it's pretty nice, seperates lashes nicely. does a bit of lengthening. can't speak on the waterproofness, haven't been in any water. i'm not used to waterproof mascara either so this will be a new experience.
the shadows are so pigmented. the cream part is definitely something that takes a bit of getting used to. they dry fast so to blend at all, you have to be quick. but once it's on, it's super pretty!

tarte eyequatic set & swatches

2009-05-26T11:49:00.004-04:00

(tarte set and my curious kitty)

well, i exchanged that benefit shadow i mentioned for the tarte set today. so totally worth it. i haven't used it yet but i can tell i'm going to love it. the colors are so pretty and very pigmented, and i never though i'd see a loose shadow come out of a rollerball so smoothly. the scarf is huge, which is awesome.

the scarf is super pretty

^flash (cream w/ loose shadow next to it)

^daylight

no buy fail / tarte eyequatic set / rant

2009-05-25T19:05:00.009-04:00

well i can tell you i've failed miserably on attempting to do any sort of no buy. not that i've purchased much, since i've been fairly broke (i've been saving my money for a month for my ipod touch 32gb i just bought :D).

i've made a couple of drugstore purchases. so i guess i haven't failed that bad, but tomorrow i'll probably be heading to the mall to exchange a benefit cream shadow i bought a little while back and didn't like the color. i'll probably be exchanging for this wonderful summer set from tarte.

i've been really loving cream shadows lately. i love my urban decay ones, although i haven't given them enough love these past few weeks. and i'm dying to try these tarte ones because i heard they stay great, and i'm getting over my fear of blues/teals. i've always loved them but never found myself wearing them.

i must say though, that as much as i say i've failed at my no buy, i have been really doing a lot of using products that i hardly touched before. i've kind of fallen for a new simple way of doing my eyeshadow. i used to use one color all over the lid, then another in the crease and another in the outer v plus a highlight. well, using this many colors sometimes left me for stumped when it came to coming up with new color combos all the time. some shadows i found i had a hard time pairing with other colors, especially non-neutral colors. maybe it's my lack of guts to wear bright/multi colors, but i just found a lot of shadows sat around since i didn't want to spend the time finding something i was satisfied with.

but lately i've been thinking, you know what? now that i've aquired so many makeup skills, doesn't mean i have to shun simplicity. so i've been taking one color all over the lid up to the crease, with sometimes a little bit of a darker color in the outer v. but it makes me less worried about pairing multiple colors. and many times, i just wear one color. i don't even bother with the outer v.

i know it sounds like going against all those makeup fanatics and their skills, but really, what's so wrong about wearing one color? i mean, i still incorporate my knowledge of blending. and i never find that it looks bad at all.

i guess, in conclusion, i'm realizing that there's nothing wrong with keeping it simple, as long as you do it right. it's even opened me up to colorful colors again, especially blues/teals that i hadn't worn in so long because i had a hard time pairing them.

haha, ok, end rant.

followers

2009-05-22T14:50:00.002-04:00

just a quick thanks to all my lovely followers. when i started this blog, i never expected this many people to be following me, and new ones everyday! thanks for reading, hope to have some more goodies to post soon!

makeup weakness

2009-05-20T09:47:00.004-04:00

what's everyone's makeup weakness? that one type of product you constantly buy even though you tell yourself you have enough to last a lifetime.

for me, it's lip products. lipsticks, lipglosses, stains, etc. i have so many and tell myself "no more, you'll never use up what you have" and yet every time i always find more lip products i want!
i love blushes, eyeshadow, mascara, etc and have plenty of all of those too, but nothing is like my addiction to lip products. and the funny thing is, i'm so lazy about wearing them, once i apply them in the morning with the rest of my makeup, i usually don't reapply all day. but i can't stop buying them!

mac msf natural

2009-05-19T20:23:00.006-04:00

so it's getting warmer, and now that i've been adding bronzer to the routine of things i put on my face, i've been feeling like i've got too many layers on. now, don't get me wrong, my mufe hd foundation does not feel heavy by any means, but i'm feeling something a little low key lately.

my skin has, thankfully, been good lately and so i've been realizing i don't need as much coverage. especially since it's warmer and the less you have to have on (and sweat off) the better.
i purchased mac's mineralize skinfinish natural a few months ago, mainly to set my makeup. i didn't use it every day but sometimes i would, along with some blot powder. so some days i would be wearing foundation, blot powder, msf natural, bronzer, blush, and sometimes an msf in areas to highlight. can be a bit much, no? especially mornings when i work and would rather have that extra 20 minutes to sleep.

anyway, i've been really enjoying wearing my msf natural alone lately. i use a dense brush so i still get a little bit of coverage. my skin feels great and i don't feel like i'm wearing so many layers. it reminds me of wearing bare escentuals, but without the shine and blending. i still miss be, but i'm waiting until they put out their matte version in the fall.
i'm definitely enjoying the powder foundation again this summer.

bronzer

2009-05-12T13:31:00.007-04:00

summer is coming, and since i'm pale as can be, i've been embracing the bronzer more and more.

i never used to be a bronzer person. it was just a step in my routine i always forgot. i wore it occasionally, but it was just not something i reached for often.
well, even though hardly wore bronzer, i still had a habit of constantly buying them. but this has benefited me this season, since i'm actually wearing them, almost everyday.
i'm finding bronzer a nice alternative to giving into going tanning. which i don't do, but have been contemplating this year. but i have resisted, wanting to keep my skin as youthful as long as i can.

i just thought i'd share some of my favorites that i've been using lately. i've tried many bronzers but these have been my favorite.

cargo medium bronzer. this bronzer is a great color, just the right darkness to give you that sunkissed look without being over the top and leaves a nice glow on your face. i've been using this one that most lately. i love the glow it leaves without making me look shiny.

mac golden bronzer. great for anyone who is new to bronzer and wants something that is subtle but buildable and leaves a nice color without being too orange. this was my first bronzer and actually one of the first mac products i hit pan on. i'm on my second one. it's a great, trusty bronzer and i really like it.

nars laguna bronzer. this is the darkest of the bronzers i use. this is a bit more brown than the other bronzers which is great for giving a nice natural looking tan. however because of the color and darkness, it's not hard to overdo and look muddy. but with the right touch, you can look really nicely tanned.

another bronzer i used to use frequently was bare escentuals faux tan (the powder not the liquid) and i really loved the results it gave me. it was also more brown so it gave a really natural looking tan and i even had people compliment me on my "tan". my only gripe with it was the fact that i'm not a huge fan of loose powders so it was a bit messy. unfortunately i gave it away to a friend after not using it for a while. i guess i thought i wasn't going to get back into it and was trying to clear some space. now that i've been using bronzer more, that bronzer would have been great this summer.

another important part to bronzer is the brush you use, and application. i bought the mac 134 paddle brush from someone on lj, after lemming it for a long time. i heard it was great for bronzer and is probably a good part of the reason why i got back into bronzer. the brush is super soft and applies powder products wonderfully, especially bronzers.

the best way to apply bronzer is to all of the areas of your face where the sun would naturally hit, so on areas like your nose, cheeks, chin. i also like to apply it on either sides of my forehead (above the outer edges of my brows) to contour a bit, and under my chin. i also apply a light layer over my neck and chest just to give myself a little bit of evenness so i don't have a much darker face than my body.

lemming alert

2009-05-08T17:09:00.002-04:00

so when mac put out their pro longwear lustre twins, i wish i had bought more of them. i have one, red flame/orange flicker. and it's beautiful, but i wish i had bought at least one more of a daytime color. mac still sells their pro longwears but i believe many of the colors from lustre twins are d/c. i'll have to go one of these days and check out what they have in the perm line.

mac pro pans

2009-05-08T10:40:00.003-04:00

of course mac cosmetics decides to start selling their eyeshadows and blushes in pro pans on their website when i decide i'm on a makeup break.
i'm super excited though. now i don't have to pay an arm an a leg on shipping from macpro to order pans, and i can save myself the extra few dollars buying pots to just go and depot them.
the ocd part of me has wished for a while now that i had the money to replace all my depotted pans with pro pans so that i could have them with their official little magnet and sticker rather than the magnets i put on with the handwritten labels. (i'm too lazy to take off the stickers from the bottom of the pots)
oh well, at least from now on i can have them that way! and i'm also thinking this will be a good time to start buying more blushes. once i have more money and my makeup hiatus is over. neat!

bold lips

2009-05-07T17:42:00.004-04:00

so i've gone through phases of lipstick colors. when i first got into makeup, i loved pinks. i thought they looked best on me. then i went through a nude phase. and now that my beauty knowledge just keeps expanding, i'm learning more about what looks good on me.
i still wear pinks and nudes. but my heart is in bold colors lately. i love them oh so much.
you know how some people like to change their outfits multiple times a day? well if i could (and i guess i could but i don't) i'd change bold lip colors all day. haha.
but do any of you bold lip wearers ever feel like you stand out too much when you wear them? i'm light skinned and the contrast with my bold lip looks fab, but in the everyday world, most people don't wear bold lips and i feel like i stand out alot.
not that this stops me, at least, not completely. i do tend to save bold lips for special occasions or when i'm just feeling extra bold (pun).
anyway, i'm feeling the love for the bold lip more and more lately. like i want to wear them everyday. maybe i'll just pull a kat dennings and wear bold lips all week!

cosmetics - recession

2009-05-07T15:50:00.003-04:00

so is anyone else cutting back on their cosmetic/beauty spending during this recession?
for myself, it doesn't help that my income is very low at this point only having a part time job. so my extra cash every week isn't much. but i'm finding that i'm enjoying using everything i have already.
it feels good to use what you have and not let it sit and go to waste, rather than constantly buying new things, using them for a week then moving on.
i'm enjoying going through everything i have and thinking of new looks to do with my current products. and, call me lame, but sometimes i just love to sit at my vanity and try things on. like lipstick. i'll put on on, look at it for a bit then wipe it off and try on something else. lol. it's fun because sometimes you have colors you completely forget you have or forget how they look. it's a good thing for me to just sit and appreciate what i have rather than always being on a search for a new product. so for me, as much as i love buying new products, maybe this is a good thing having to slow down on how much i can buy.
so how are these economic times affecting your beauty purchasing? are you buying less, more or the same?

another fotd

2009-05-06T13:34:00.005-04:00

since i've haven't been buying any makeup, and i've been lazy about thinking of subjects to talk about, i present you with another fotd.

face:
mufe hd foundation
mac blot powder
mac msf natural
cargo bronzer
nars luster blush
mac redhead msf

eyes:
mac spiced chocolate quad
mac blacktrack fluidline
ud zero 24/7 pencil
covergirl lashblast mascara

lips:
marquise d' lipstick

got my bangs back - fotd

2009-05-05T19:43:00.002-04:00

another fotd. my friend finally cut my bangs again so i have them back! and they're a little different this time too.
it was rainy and dark today so therefore my camera takes crappy indoor pics. and the flash in my eye closeup washed out the colors :( sorry!

face:
mufe hd foundation
mac blot powder
cargo bronzer
nars deep throat blush
mac light flush msf

eyes:
mac smoke & diamonds
mac carbon
ud zero e/s
mac blacktrack fluidline
ud zero 24/7 pencil
smashbox bionic mascara

lips:
mac sweet thing l/s

2009-04-29T14:34:00.000-04:00

eyes:
urban decay sin primer potion
urban decay get baked kit (half baked, baked, twice baked, flipside)
mac vanilla e/s (highlight)
loreal linear intence liner
lash stiletto mascara (not a fan)

face:
mufe hd foundation
mac blot powder
mac msf natural
nars luster blush
cargo bronzer

lips:
mac 3n

haul - urban decay get baked set

2009-04-27T18:39:00.007-04:00

i ordered another mufe hd foundation since mine is almost out and i also got this new urban decay palette for summer. it's called get baked. it comes with baked, half baked, twice baked and flipside eyeshadows, a mini bourbon 24/7 liner and a mini sin primer potion.
i'm super excited about this palette. the colors are gorgeous. i used to have baked eyeshadow but i didn't wear it and swapped it, but i love the color palette of this so i'm sure i'll get some use out of it this time. sin pp looks really nice too, i might end up getting a full sized if this one runs out!
some quick swatches of the palette.
at the top is sin pp, then top left is twice baked, next to that is shattered, on bottom left is half baked then baked on the right and bourbon liner underneath.

project..5 pan

2009-04-26T19:45:00.002-04:00

so inspired by lollipop26's project 10 pan (which i think she got the idea from someone else she knows), a friend and i have decided to do something similar. but we both agreed 10 will take us both far too long (lol) so we're going with project 5 pan.
basically we don't buy any new cosmetics until we've used up 5 that we already have. whether it be hitting pan on an eyeshadow or blush or using up a foundation or lipstick, etc.
i'm already almost done with my mufe hd foundation. i did order another one. but that was purchased before i decided to do this. but since my foundation isn't technically empty yet, i'll count it as one when it's done. lol.
anyway, this will be exciting. it will inspire me to get some more use out of things i have already and maybe haven't given enough love. and it's always fun to use up a product. it makes you feel like you're actually getting your money's worth.
so, on to project 5 pan!

rose romance haul

2009-04-24T15:50:00.005-04:00

sorry for the lack of posts lately. i've been slacking, i admit. i'm due for a buttload of fotds and such.
but today i present you with my rose romance+ haul. i purchased the fix+ rose (it is love. such a classy scent. does anyone else think they should have made the bottle light pink?) and summer rose beauty powder. i was eying a few other things but honestly those were the only two products from the line that i really really wanted. i also got a msf natural because i had been wanting one for a long time and kept putting off buying it. so i decided to finally take the plunge and get one. and i b2m'ed for 2 lipsticks. i got sweet thing (which i think was from the sugar sweet collection) and rebel. i'm loving both of them. and i also went to sephora and got benefit's tattle tale cream shadow since my friend convinced me we both needed it in our lives ;)
i also walked into body shop and smelled this fabulous smell. turns out it was two oils mixed together but the scent i enjoyed was the citrus smell of their satsuma (i think that's how it's spelled). so i picked up a small little package of body butter, body wash and a little loofah (not pictured). it was on sale. the smell is such a yummy orange smell. perfect for summer. it was love at first smell.
we walked into lush but ended up leaving empty handed. i've got enough to last me a while. i did want the candy fluff body powder but i found out it has sparkles :(

upcoming haul/lemmings

2009-04-21T22:29:00.003-04:00

so i got my first paycheck from my new job last week and my lovey has been super sweet about it telling me it's my first paycheck and i should spend it on myself. so i have been. little things here and there. i ordered more mufe foundation and a ud palette with my 15% off coupon. i'm almost out of mufe hd and figured now's a good time to restock.
but i'm headed to the mall thursday with a friend to check out rose romance!
what i think i'm going to like is the fix+ rose, if nothing else, just to spray myself and smell nice lol. also one of the beauty powders (i think it's the darker one). some other possibilities are a lippie (i have some empties i need to b2m). and maybe one of the see thru lip colors. the gel blush looks neat too. i'm excited to check it all out.
pics when i haul!

haul hauly haul

2009-04-13T17:35:00.004-04:00

well i went a little nuts when i went out with my obff (online bff ;]). i hauled my little tooshie off. no more for me for a while!
we hit up mac, sephora and lush. i didn't include pics of my lush stuff because it's already all sealed and packed in my plastic bin lol.
and then when i came home from the mall, my urban decay friends and family haul was here! so i got a lot of goodies in one day.
i got 2 dazzleglasses from mac (funtabulous and love alert). i got a ud pocket rocket lipgloss from sephora. lol i totally wasn't into these when i first saw them online but when i saw this color in person i wanted it regardless of the half naked man on the tube. lol. and from urban decay i got jilted and gash lipstick, midnight cowgirl and blunt eyeshadows and underground deluxe shadow. i got a deluxe sized mini sellout lipstick too. i had gotten one of those in gash from sephora as a freebie and thats what made me fall in love with gash.
i also got a mini sized bad gal mascara as my beauty insider freebie at sephora but i forgot to put it in the pic.
yay for hauls!

beautycrunch

2009-04-10T20:32:00.004-04:00

well my very first beautycrunch.com order came in today. it was waiting for me when i came home from work. yay!
such amazing deals on this site, let me tell you! the only problem is you have to scoop them up fast!

well i got myself two palettes. one was a fall fashion one (with the flower) and it came with a mini smokey quartz eye pencil. i also got some special edition palette with 3 eye colors and one cheek color. the one with the flower is neutrals, the other is shades of pink.

it's not very often that i order something on a whim, especially without having seen it in person first. but i knew i should order these before they were gone.

they were so worth it! the colors look sooooo gorgeous! i haven't touched them yet. i did swatch the eye pencil though. i'm so so pleased with my purchase. and i don't ever get that excited over something i didn't even know how it would look in person. but i'm so happy, all the colors are so pretty!!

i'll probably try to do some looks with them soon.

something different

2009-04-10T11:29:00.003-04:00

so since i haven't updated in a while about anything other than my teeth whitening endeavors.
what's new? well, i got a part time job. yay! it's not what i'm looking to do long term, since it's not a job in my field, but it's money and it's good for a while. i'm taking a summer class to boost up my resume.

i'm almost out of my mufe hd foundation. !! i'll have to buy some soon, i'll freak if i run out!!
i might need a new sonia kashuk sponge soon too. i've had mine for a while, and i know they don't last forever. mine's holding up pretty well for now though.

i might be heading to the mall tomorrow, lush is having some little thing for easter, i think there will be free goodies. i'll probably check out the double dazzle collection that mac just put out. i'm meeting a friend there, my online friend i've had for a while, we finally met last weekend, it's super awesome!!

i'm thinking of making a youtube video soon. i haven't done one in a while. i might do one with kind of a highlight of my favorite products i've bought recently. since i haven't done any haul videos or posts recently.

that's about it for now. more to come soon!

whitestrips update...4...5?

2009-04-09T08:55:00.000-04:00

well i'm getting slight sensitivity back, but nothing bad, and i'm noticing my teeth getting slowly whiter. i can't wait to see how they'll look in about 5 more days!

whitestrips update day 3

2009-04-07T08:22:00.001-04:00

well i took sunday off of the strips since i was getting a lot of sensitivity on saturday. it was a good idea because my teeth are back to normal now, even after using the strips yesterday. still waiting to see some significant results but they're still subtle. but i do have to keep in mind its only been 3 days.

whitestrips update day 2-ish

2009-04-04T16:50:00.004-04:00

so i'm finally getting some sensitivity that i'd read about online. i started getting it last night and i'm having it today too. it's the kind of sensitivity some people (including myself) get with changes from hot to cold (or vice versa) foods. also sometimes if my teeth are extra sensitive even breathing in and having cool air touch my teeth can give me a little twinge.
well i hadn't had it in a while and now the strips are causing it again. but it's bearable and the results are worth it. i'm noticing a slight bit of whitening already. and everywhere i read says the sensitivity is temporary so it's no biggie.
still no burning in my gums which is a good thing. so excited for my 10 days to be up!